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 Lebanon and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai 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 808 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 The Dave Clark Five to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Barrington Levy. All the underground hits.
All Metal Thangz tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-101 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 marimba and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gap Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hashim,
Gang of Four,
Brass Construction,
Flash Fearless,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Pere Ubu,
The Fuzztones,
Nils Olav,
Blake Baxter,
Robert Görl,
Amon Düül II,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Neu!,
Sam Rivers,
Gabor Szabo,
the Human League,
Black Pus,
Crispy Ambulance,
Henry Cow,
Kerri Chandler,
Todd Rundgren,
The Neon Judgement,
Black Moon,
Angry Samoans,
The Zeros,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Buckinghams,
Rekid,
Popol Vuh,
Bootsy Collins,
Bob Dylan,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Gladiators,
Half Japanese,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Bang On A Can,
Cybotron,
Technova,
Anthony Braxton,
Barrington Levy,
Kerrie Biddell,
Rufus Thomas,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Second Layer,
Soul II Soul,
Eddi Front,
The Sound,
Amazonics,
Eden Ahbez,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Index,
Judy Mowatt,
The Names,
Moby Grape,
Arcadia,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers.
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.