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 Mongolia and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South 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 Johannesburg and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 güiro 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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine to the grunge 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 June Days. All the underground hits.
All Teenage Jesus and the Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agent Orange 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra Arkestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord 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?
The Smoke,
Reuben Wilson,
Pulsallama,
Marcia Griffiths,
Donald Byrd,
Sonic Youth,
Kenny Larkin,
Slick Rick,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Slits,
Buzzcocks,
New Order,
Essential Logic,
Section 25,
The Fortunes,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Saints,
MC5,
Swans,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lakeside,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Arthur Verocai,
Dawn Penn,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Pretty Things,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Moleskins,
Peter & Gordon,
Jawbox,
Groovy Waters,
Public Image Ltd.,
Lalann,
Accadde A,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Pop Group,
Wolf Eyes,
The Dead C,
Bobby Byrd,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Human League,
Loose Ends,
Scott Walker,
KRS-One,
Stockholm Monsters,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Blues Magoos,
Yusef Lateef,
Black Moon,
Con Funk Shun,
Nik Kershaw,
The Sound,
The Fire Engines,
Nick Fraelich,
Nirvana,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Gang of Four,
David McCallum,
Pere Ubu,
The Kinks,
Marvin Gaye,
Brass Construction,
Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters.
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.