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 Austria and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ultra Naté to the funk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All Black Sheep tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Holt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Y Pants,
Parry Music,
Neil Young,
Severed Heads,
Black Sheep,
Vladislav Delay,
Sound Behaviour,
Agitation Free,
FM Einheit,
Danielle Patucci,
Lou Reed,
Janne Schatter,
Marvin Gaye,
Ronan,
Siglo XX,
Althea and Donna,
Black Moon,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Roger Hodgson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Joey Negro,
Suburban Knight,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
8 Eyed Spy,
Charles Mingus,
These Immortal Souls,
Dennis Brown,
Ken Boothe,
Minnie Riperton,
The Grass Roots,
The Monks,
Blossom Toes,
The Doobie Brothers,
Grey Daturas,
The American Breed,
Kayak,
Kaleidoscope,
Malaria!,
Bauhaus,
Fela Kuti,
Goldenarms,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Rotary Connection,
JFA,
Young Marble Giants,
Hardrive,
Tomorrow,
Brick,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Wings,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Ornette Coleman,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Intrusion,
Interpol,
Lalann,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Rhythm & Sound,
Au Pairs,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front, Eddi Front.
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.