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 Malawi and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 Manchester and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 clarinet 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 DJ Sneak to the rock 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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Aloha Tigers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Mills record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Red Lorry Yellow Lorry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Max Romeo,
Jacques Brel,
The New Christs,
The Fire Engines,
Franke,
Moebius,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Wasted Youth,
AZ,
Slick Rick,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Ornette Coleman,
the Germs,
Todd Terry,
D'Angelo,
Alison Limerick,
Blake Baxter,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Heaven 17,
Sixth Finger,
Harpers Bizarre,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Black Dice,
Silicon Teens,
Lyres,
Sun Ra,
Jandek,
Livin' Joy,
Liliput,
Faraquet,
Gregory Isaacs,
James White and The Blacks,
Intrusion,
The Sound,
Ossler,
Wally Richardson,
Cheater Slicks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Kinks,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Walker Brothers,
Minutemen,
the Swans,
Altered Images,
Scientists,
Iggy Pop,
Cameo,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Wake,
Althea and Donna,
Sandy B,
Little Man,
Maleditus Sound,
The Sonics,
Main Source,
Flipper,
T.S.O.L.,
Eddi Front,
The Music Machine,
Sonny Sharrock,
Janne Schatter,
Stetsasonic,
Swell Maps,
Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja.
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.