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 Bhutan and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 Lou Reed 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 Jeru the Damaja to the techno 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 Avey Tare. All the underground hits.
All Rosa Yemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every June Days 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Black Dice record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roxette,
Joey Negro,
Moby Grape,
The Blues Magoos,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Scientists,
Gil Scott Heron,
Royal Trux,
Angry Samoans,
Los Fastidios,
The Kinks,
Intrusion,
Pagans,
A Certain Ratio,
The Buckinghams,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Charles Mingus,
Severed Heads,
Joyce Sims,
James White and The Blacks,
Ultimate Spinach,
Soul Sonic Force,
Alice Coltrane,
Absolute Body Control,
Dead Boys,
Eurythmics,
Lou Reed,
Scratch Acid,
Joe Smooth,
Drexciya,
Flamin' Groovies,
Essential Logic,
Stereo Dub,
The Walker Brothers,
Reuben Wilson,
Jeff Lynne,
Janne Schatter,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Slits,
Blossom Toes,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Eddi Front,
Wings,
Au Pairs,
Max Romeo,
Don Cherry,
The Monochrome Set,
This Heat,
Nico,
Television Personalities,
Can,
Monolake,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
John Foxx,
Johnny Clarke,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Gichy Dan,
China Crisis,
Metal Thangz,
The Detroit Cobras,
Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses.
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.