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 Saudi Arabia and from Mexico City.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Eden Ahbez to the grunge 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Dark Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faust record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brand Nubian record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dawn Penn,
Monolake,
Sound Behaviour,
Yazoo,
Charles Mingus,
The Index,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Mark Hollis,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Dead Boys,
The Invisible,
The Happenings,
The Residents,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Count Five,
Kayak,
Bootsy Collins,
Chrome,
Lightning Bolt,
Visage,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Barclay James Harvest,
Derrick May,
Average White Band,
Dual Sessions,
Los Fastidios,
Funkadelic,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Sugar Minott,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ultravox,
The Martian,
Sex Pistols,
Supertramp,
Jeru the Damaja,
D'Angelo,
The Real Kids,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tom Boy,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Fall,
Amon Düül II,
Janne Schatter,
Fugazi,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Ice-T,
Rakim,
The Five Americans,
Fad Gadget,
Lakeside,
Bluetip,
In Retrospect,
The Star Department,
the Soft Cell,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Schoolly D,
The Neon Judgement,
LL Cool J,
Idris Muhammad,
Flipper,
Susan Cadogan,
Zero Boys, Zero Boys, Zero Boys, Zero Boys.
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.