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 Norway and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the organ 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the grime 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 Strawberry Alarm Clock. All the underground hits.
All Cecil Taylor tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Y Pants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Can record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Index,
Television Personalities,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Skatalites,
Marmalade,
Pagans,
Ice-T,
Johnny Osbourne,
Jeff Lynne,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Smoke,
a-ha,
Bobby Womack,
Crooked Eye,
Pulsallama,
Radiopuhelimet,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Real Kids,
Dawn Penn,
Mo-Dettes,
Chris Corsano,
Sixth Finger,
Gang Starr,
Idris Muhammad,
Smog,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Davy DMX,
Fluxion,
Freddie Wadling,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lebanon Hanover,
Ten City,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Mighty Diamonds,
AZ,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Count Five,
Ponytail,
Alice Coltrane,
Arthur Verocai,
Easy Going,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Clear Light,
Suburban Knight,
The Buckinghams,
Au Pairs,
Bobby Sherman,
Severed Heads,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Traffic Nightmare,
James White and The Blacks,
The Grass Roots,
Joey Negro,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Harpers Bizarre,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Five Americans,
DJ Style,
Fugazi,
Sound Behaviour,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.