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 Yemen and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 snare 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 Gap Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Erykah Badu. All the underground hits.
All The Buckinghams tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every China Crisis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 sitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Gang Dance record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Neon Judgement,
Delta 5,
Ultravox,
Judy Mowatt,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Alarm Clocks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Pussy Galore,
Eddi Front,
Crime,
The Gun Club,
Bluetip,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Shoche,
Idris Muhammad,
Los Fastidios,
The Durutti Column,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Move,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Lucky Dragons,
The Flesh Eaters,
Man Eating Sloth,
Matthew Halsall,
the Human League,
Prince Buster,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Whodini,
Kenny Larkin,
Albert Ayler,
The J.B.'s,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Residents,
Terry Callier,
Stereo Dub,
Sound Behaviour,
Gichy Dan,
Absolute Body Control,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Aloha Tigers,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Yaz,
Arthur Verocai,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Scrapy,
The Dead C,
The Kinks,
The Standells,
Pharoah Sanders,
Jerry's Kids,
Stockholm Monsters,
Electric Prunes,
Hot Snakes,
Crispian St. Peters,
Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade.
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.