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 Fiji and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Slick Rick to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Dave Gahan. All the underground hits.
All The United States of America tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every La Düsseldorf record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Harry Pussy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dawn Penn,
Skriet,
Althea and Donna,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Shuggie Otis,
Cybotron,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Soulsonic Force,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Golliwogs,
Severed Heads,
World's Most,
Bobby Womack,
the Normal,
Desert Stars,
Tubeway Army,
China Crisis,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Slackers,
Das Ding,
Lalo Schifrin,
Barclay James Harvest,
Sixth Finger,
Lucky Dragons,
L. Decosne,
the Sonics,
Dave Gahan,
Metal Thangz,
Rites of Spring,
Ten City,
Sarah Menescal,
The Mummies,
Soul Sonic Force,
Franke,
Deadbeat,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Kinks,
DJ Style,
The Skatalites,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Swans,
Alice Coltrane,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
H. Thieme,
The Litter,
Brand Nubian,
The Fuzztones,
the Germs,
Magazine,
Soft Cell,
Godley & Creme,
Don Cherry,
The Victims,
Swell Maps,
Danielle Patucci,
Suicide,
Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth.
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.