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 Ecuador and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise 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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Robert Palmer 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 Eric Copeland to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 New York Dolls. All the underground hits.
All Rosa Yemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Richard Hell and the Voidoids record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Buckinghams record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Germs,
Donald Byrd,
Hoover,
Erykah Badu,
Ohio Players,
Bush Tetras,
Bill Wells,
Donny Hathaway,
Gong,
Dawn Penn,
Royal Trux,
Fugazi,
Tubeway Army,
L. Decosne,
Qualms,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Technova,
The Dead C,
Kaleidoscope,
Vainqueur,
Loose Ends,
Skarface,
Desert Stars,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Roger Hodgson,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Dirtbombs,
Mark Hollis,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Cluster,
Gastr Del Sol,
Boredoms,
Tommy Roe,
Cybotron,
The Blues Magoos,
Sonny Sharrock,
Davy DMX,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Andrew Hill,
Graham Central Station,
The Dave Clark Five,
Rotary Connection,
Neil Young,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Scion,
The Motions,
The Blackbyrds,
Altered Images,
Barry Ungar,
Unrelated Segments,
Television Personalities,
Radiohead,
The Velvet Underground,
Essential Logic,
Sarah Menescal,
Althea and Donna,
Iggy Pop,
Severed Heads,
Magma,
Darondo,
Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry.
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.