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 Liberia and from Manchester.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 güiro 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 48th St. Collective to the grime 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 Fat Boys. All the underground hits.
All Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cameo 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rufus Thomas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
Black Flag,
The Five Americans,
Byron Stingily,
T.S.O.L.,
Derrick May,
The Sound,
Maleditus Sound,
Soulsonic Force,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Selecter,
Carl Craig,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Velvet Underground,
Gregory Isaacs,
Faust,
The Slits,
Nils Olav,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Crash Course in Science,
Index,
Donald Byrd,
Fugazi,
Ponytail,
X-Ray Spex,
Kenny Larkin,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
It's A Beautiful Day,
Babytalk,
Marc Almond,
Von Mondo,
The New Christs,
Pulsallama,
Soft Machine,
The Saints,
Alphaville,
The Leaves,
DJ Sneak,
The Vogues,
Black Pus,
The Invisible,
The Motions,
Mad Mike,
EPMD,
Danielle Patucci,
The Fugs,
Moby Grape,
Excepter,
Suicide,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Echospace,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Anthony Braxton,
Sonic Youth,
Monks,
Eli Mardock,
New Order,
Barry Ungar,
The Gun Club,
Tres Demented,
Smog,
Bauhaus,
R.M.O.,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann's Earth Band.
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.