Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Samoa and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Saccharine Trust to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Q and Not U record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Erykah Badu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Qualms,
Minny Pops,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Boz Scaggs,
Fugazi,
Thompson Twins,
Marvin Gaye,
Livin' Joy,
Nick Fraelich,
Intrusion,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Barracudas,
Excepter,
8 Eyed Spy,
T. Rex,
The Modern Lovers,
Amazonics,
The Birthday Party,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Sonic Youth,
John Foxx,
Aaron Thompson,
Eli Mardock,
Porter Ricks,
Anthony Braxton,
Mission of Burma,
UT,
Rotary Connection,
Radio Birdman,
Essential Logic,
Gong,
Matthew Bourne,
Robert Wyatt,
Lucky Dragons,
Avey Tare,
Tears for Fears,
The Doobie Brothers,
Faust,
The Blackbyrds,
Ohio Players,
Morten Harket,
Agent Orange,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Johnny Clarke,
Outsiders,
Kerri Chandler,
The Five Americans,
Vainqueur,
Jeff Mills,
The New Christs,
Maleditus Sound,
Wasted Youth,
Rosa Yemen,
Siglo XX,
the Association,
Gastr Del Sol,
Neu!,
Tomorrow,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Sonics,
Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow, Kurtis Blow.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.