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 East Timor and from Mexico City.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 The Angels of Light to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Jerry Gold Smith. All the underground hits.
All The Evens tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dawn Penn record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bob Dylan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Dirtbombs,
Subhumans,
Bootsy Collins,
Crooked Eye,
Pole,
The Velvet Underground,
The Trojans,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Robert Wyatt,
Altered Images,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Danielle Patucci,
Unrelated Segments,
David McCallum,
Oblivians,
Kas Product,
Surgeon,
X-102,
Nik Kershaw,
Bill Near,
The Barracudas,
Avey Tare,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cameo,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Accadde A,
The Moleskins,
The Neon Judgement,
Lungfish,
Flamin' Groovies,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Morten Harket,
Organ,
The Seeds,
Sparks,
Sam Rivers,
Massinfluence,
Symarip,
Gregory Isaacs,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sun City Girls,
Country Joe & The Fish,
These Immortal Souls,
Ultimate Spinach,
DJ Sneak,
Michelle Simonal,
the Germs,
Rosa Yemen,
Bang On A Can,
DJ Style,
Warren Ellis,
The Wake,
Newcleus,
The Alarm Clocks,
L. Decosne,
Traffic Nightmare,
David Axelrod,
Soft Cell,
Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers.
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.