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 Zambia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 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 The Gap Band to the funk 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 Scrapy. All the underground hits.
All Yusef Lateef tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Dead C 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ultravox,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Black Dice,
Trumans Water,
Eric Copeland,
Faust,
The Neon Judgement,
Flash Fearless,
Arcadia,
Henry Cow,
Black Bananas,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
T.S.O.L.,
The Doobie Brothers,
Danielle Patucci,
Dark Day,
The Fall,
Stereo Dub,
Stetsasonic,
New York Dolls,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Agent Orange,
Pet Shop Boys,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Barrington Levy,
Television,
Althea and Donna,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Harmonia,
Depeche Mode,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Silicon Teens,
ABBA,
the Bar-Kays,
The Divine Comedy,
Roxette,
DNA,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
La Düsseldorf,
X-102,
Darondo,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Avey Tare,
Bronski Beat,
The Five Americans,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Rosa Yemen,
The Victims,
Jeru the Damaja,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Golliwogs,
Slave,
The Fuzztones,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Basic Channel,
Lungfish,
Kerrie Biddell,
Gastr Del Sol,
the Slits,
Can,
Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange.
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.