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 Fiji and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in 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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Sonny Sharrock to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Fugazi tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Electric Light Orchestra 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Man Eating Sloth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bush Tetras,
Josef K,
The Gun Club,
Sixth Finger,
Bill Wells,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Mad Mike,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Black Dice,
Vladislav Delay,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Seeds,
This Heat,
Soul II Soul,
Quando Quango,
MDC,
The Human League,
The Real Kids,
Subhumans,
The Cramps,
Outsiders,
Ornette Coleman,
Altered Images,
Ken Boothe,
Rotary Connection,
Pantytec,
Cecil Taylor,
Surgeon,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Golliwogs,
Dark Day,
The Slits,
Icehouse,
Metal Thangz,
the Swans,
DJ Sneak,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Kevin Saunderson,
Angry Samoans,
Michelle Simonal,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
the Sonics,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
48th St. Collective,
Mark Hollis,
Agent Orange,
John Lydon,
UT,
The Young Rascals,
Das Ding,
Johnny Clarke,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Barbara Tucker,
DJ Style,
The Monochrome Set,
Ohio Players,
The Divine Comedy,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Matthew Halsall,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.