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 South Sudan and from Delhi.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 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 Dual Sessions to the rock 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 Pet Shop Boys. All the underground hits.
All Funky Four + One tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quadrant 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Simply Red record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Theoretical Girls,
Liliput,
Barbara Tucker,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Doors,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Saccharine Trust,
Unrelated Segments,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Michelle Simonal,
Jandek,
Erykah Badu,
Althea and Donna,
Faust,
Crispian St. Peters,
Robert Wyatt,
Skriet,
Bobby Womack,
Tears for Fears,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Gladiators,
Q and Not U,
Brothers Johnson,
Con Funk Shun,
Ultimate Spinach,
Audionom,
Bill Near,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gang Starr,
Sun Ra,
Amon Düül II,
Radiohead,
Franke,
Sister Nancy,
Pagans,
Dawn Penn,
The Walker Brothers,
Quando Quango,
E-Dancer,
The Durutti Column,
Simply Red,
CMW,
James White and The Blacks,
Camouflage,
Byron Stingily,
Fatback Band,
Unwound,
Eli Mardock,
Dual Sessions,
Max Romeo,
Tim Buckley,
Fear,
Masters at Work,
Eve St. Jones,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Slackers,
Amon Düül,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Red Krayola,
Cameo,
Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel, Jacques Brel.
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.