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 Ecuador and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Ice-T to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Tubeway Army. All the underground hits.
All Marine Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 harpsichord and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Neon Judgement record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skarface,
Dave Gahan,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Jimmy McGriff,
Jeff Mills,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Gang Starr,
The Cramps,
Hasil Adkins,
PIL,
Eurythmics,
Brand Nubian,
Clear Light,
Ronan,
Peter and Kerry,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Fela Kuti,
Monolake,
The Dirtbombs,
KRS-One,
Groovy Waters,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
the Bar-Kays,
The Fuzztones,
The Happenings,
Amon Düül,
Charles Mingus,
Idris Muhammad,
Sound Behaviour,
Zapp,
Marcia Griffiths,
Sexual Harrassment,
In Retrospect,
Gang Green,
Eric Copeland,
Barbara Tucker,
Davy DMX,
The Buckinghams,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Remains,
Soul II Soul,
Gang Gang Dance,
a-ha,
Ponytail,
Accadde A,
One Last Wish,
The Fall,
Wasted Youth,
Masters at Work,
Banda Bassotti,
World's Most,
Neil Young,
Soulsonic Force,
Rod Modell,
Ornette Coleman,
John Coltrane,
Jesper Dahlback,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Drive Like Jehu,
Liliput, Liliput, Liliput, Liliput.
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.