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 Saudi Arabia and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Man Eating Sloth to the electroclash 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 Cheater Slicks. All the underground hits.
All Gabor Szabo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angels of Light & Akron/Family 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cheater Slicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
The J.B.'s,
Interpol,
K-Klass,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Slits,
Fatback Band,
Aloha Tigers,
Vainqueur,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Pantytec,
Avey Tare,
The Evens,
the Human League,
Barclay James Harvest,
Marmalade,
Bronski Beat,
R.M.O.,
John Holt,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Brothers Johnson,
Magazine,
Sight & Sound,
Zapp,
Section 25,
Grandmaster Flash,
Glenn Branca,
Blossom Toes,
This Heat,
Lou Reed,
Mad Mike,
Al Stewart,
Prince Buster,
Deakin,
The Move,
China Crisis,
L. Decosne,
Supertramp,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Kinks,
Crash Course in Science,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
JFA,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cal Tjader,
Jesper Dahlback,
Yazoo,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ultra Naté,
Severed Heads,
Skriet,
Alton Ellis,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
the Soft Cell,
The Last Poets,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Offenders,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Litter, The Litter, The Litter, The Litter.
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.