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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Lagos.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Laurel Aitken to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Royal Trux record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swell Maps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tears for Fears,
AZ,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Cheater Slicks,
Masters at Work,
The Searchers,
Skaos,
The Fuzztones,
Sexual Harrassment,
Fugazi,
The Last Poets,
Drive Like Jehu,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Nils Olav,
The Gun Club,
Joe Finger,
Thompson Twins,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Model 500,
Kurtis Blow,
Slave,
Ultimate Spinach,
Laurel Aitken,
48th St. Collective,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Minny Pops,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
the Soft Cell,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Gang Starr,
Fela Kuti,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Shoche,
Derrick Morgan,
Aloha Tigers,
Black Moon,
Leonard Cohen,
Con Funk Shun,
Gerry Rafferty,
Kerrie Biddell,
Scientists,
The Flesh Eaters,
Suicide,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Siglo XX,
Oneida,
Severed Heads,
Prince Buster,
Excepter,
Icehouse,
Althea and Donna,
Ituana,
Slick Rick,
Ronan,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Gap Band,
Hoover,
The Misunderstood,
Blancmange,
Johnny Clarke,
Half Japanese,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.