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 El Salvador and from Lille.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Lower 48 to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brothers Johnson,
The New Christs,
Hoover,
Thee Headcoats,
Gong,
Pierre Henry,
Pantytec,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
ABC,
Boogie Down Productions,
Intrusion,
Cecil Taylor,
Harpers Bizarre,
Bauhaus,
Loose Ends,
The Red Krayola,
In Retrospect,
Rosa Yemen,
Eric Dolphy,
Magazine,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Dave Clark Five,
Matthew Bourne,
Max Romeo,
The Zeros,
Banda Bassotti,
The Flesh Eaters,
Deadbeat,
Inner City,
Funkadelic,
LL Cool J,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Gladiators,
Zero Boys,
the Human League,
The Smoke,
The Alarm Clocks,
Sällskapet,
Minutemen,
The United States of America,
Dorothy Ashby,
This Heat,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Rod Modell,
The Divine Comedy,
Wings,
Gastr Del Sol,
Girls At Our Best!,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Names,
Don Cherry,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
One Last Wish,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Jeff Mills,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Judy Mowatt,
Con Funk Shun,
The Doobie Brothers,
Marshall Jefferson,
Audionom, Audionom, Audionom, Audionom.
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.