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 Maldives and from Spokane.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Milan.
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 rhodes 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 Buckinghams to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Sarah Menescal. All the underground hits.
All Scion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sandy B record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 harpsichord and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Certain Ratio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Mills,
Soul II Soul,
Frankie Knuckles,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Kenny Larkin,
Lee Hazlewood,
Peter & Gordon,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Doobie Brothers,
Electric Prunes,
Soulsonic Force,
Intrusion,
Urselle,
Absolute Body Control,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Tropical Tobacco,
R.M.O.,
Interpol,
Cymande,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Todd Rundgren,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pylon,
Inner City,
Boz Scaggs,
Mark Hollis,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Oneida,
Amon Düül II,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Music Machine,
Zero Boys,
Suburban Knight,
a-ha,
Young Marble Giants,
Gastr Del Sol,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Scion,
Cybotron,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
the Bar-Kays,
Rotary Connection,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Yellowson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Goldenarms,
Minnie Riperton,
The Mummies,
48th St. Collective,
Saccharine Trust,
Model 500,
Nils Olav,
Drexciya,
Talk Talk,
Nik Kershaw,
Erasure,
Soft Cell,
Terry Callier,
The Velvet Underground,
Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar, Barry Ungar.
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.