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 Antigua and from Edmonton.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Manila.
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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Selecter to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Martian. All the underground hits.
All X-101 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lucky Dragons record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Theoretical Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wings,
The Beau Brummels,
Arab on Radar,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Symarip,
Echospace,
Cybotron,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Oblivians,
These Immortal Souls,
Ultravox,
Scott Walker,
Rakim,
Bush Tetras,
Livin' Joy,
Eden Ahbez,
Lou Christie,
Television Personalities,
Eddi Front,
Steve Hackett,
Ronan,
Q65,
the Association,
The Wake,
Mo-Dettes,
Depeche Mode,
Scientists,
Marshall Jefferson,
Mandrill,
Girls At Our Best!,
Sun Ra,
Roxy Music,
T. Rex,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Idris Muhammad,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Stetsasonic,
Arcadia,
Japan,
The Human League,
KRS-One,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Fire Engines,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Charles Mingus,
Man Parrish,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Das Ding,
Unrelated Segments,
Oneida,
Marine Girls,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Martian,
The Golliwogs,
Bill Wells,
Blossom Toes,
Sällskapet,
Malaria!,
Agent Orange,
Yaz,
Dennis Brown,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.