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 Afghanistan and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 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 Eddi Front to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Guru Guru. All the underground hits.
All Make Up tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Colin Newman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hardrive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Albert Ayler,
the Soft Cell,
Mary Jane Girls,
Sun Ra,
EPMD,
Crooked Eye,
Letta Mbulu,
Deakin,
Brick,
the Association,
The Fall,
The Pretty Things,
The Raincoats,
Gregory Isaacs,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Spandau Ballet,
Excepter,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Doobie Brothers,
Joy Division,
Second Layer,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Marmalade,
Absolute Body Control,
David Bowie,
Black Flag,
The Sonics,
Erykah Badu,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Basic Channel,
Interpol,
Babytalk,
Michelle Simonal,
Moby Grape,
The Slackers,
Vainqueur,
Little Man,
Gang Green,
Archie Shepp,
Kurtis Blow,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Bill Near,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Franke,
Nik Kershaw,
Ponytail,
Outsiders,
Guru Guru,
Crime,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Rotary Connection,
Fatback Band,
Con Funk Shun,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Skaos,
Arcadia,
Suburban Knight,
The Offenders,
Pussy Galore,
The Black Dice,
Banda Bassotti,
The Wake, The Wake, The Wake, The Wake.
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.