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 Suriname and from Jakarta.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Morten Harket to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Lindisfarne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Quando Quango,
Scott Walker,
Excepter,
Radiohead,
Black Flag,
Khruangbin,
World's Most,
James White and The Blacks,
One Last Wish,
Rites of Spring,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Eden Ahbez,
Sound Behaviour,
Main Source,
Flash Fearless,
Sex Pistols,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Flesh Eaters,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
the Human League,
Fat Boys,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Cramps,
Absolute Body Control,
Gabor Szabo,
A Certain Ratio,
In Retrospect,
Althea and Donna,
Roy Ayers,
Desert Stars,
The J.B.'s,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dark Day,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lightning Bolt,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Toasters,
Lower 48,
The Searchers,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Blues Magoos,
Warsaw,
Swell Maps,
The Leaves,
Saccharine Trust,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Maleditus Sound,
Metal Thangz,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Walker Brothers,
Dennis Brown,
The Gap Band,
Fugazi,
Harpers Bizarre,
Cymande,
Sugar Minott,
Skriet,
Faraquet,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.