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 Mali and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Q and Not U to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Drive Like Jehu. All the underground hits.
All Barbara Tucker tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Kinks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 harpsichord and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tubeway Army,
Rotary Connection,
Cheater Slicks,
Dark Day,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Reagan Youth,
The Names,
Surgeon,
Sonny Sharrock,
John Coltrane,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Moss Icon,
Joensuu 1685,
La Düsseldorf,
Lungfish,
Joe Finger,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Index,
Absolute Body Control,
Wings,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Drive Like Jehu,
Lalo Schifrin,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Porter Ricks,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Warsaw,
Josef K,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Nirvana,
Todd Rundgren,
Man Parrish,
Peter and Kerry,
MDC,
The Move,
The Happenings,
Robert Wyatt,
Mark Hollis,
Traffic Nightmare,
Matthew Halsall,
Eric Copeland,
Harmonia,
Whodini,
Jeru the Damaja,
Animal Collective,
The Knickerbockers,
Sun City Girls,
Vainqueur,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Real Kids,
Oneida,
Terrestrial Tones,
Althea and Donna,
The Residents,
Yazoo,
The Golliwogs,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Basic Channel,
The Angels of Light,
Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson, Aaron Thompson.
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.