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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in 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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Bad Manners to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Oblivians. All the underground hits.
All The Invisible tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nik Kershaw record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Five Americans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fluxion,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Cameo,
Grauzone,
Moby Grape,
James White and The Blacks,
Von Mondo,
Bauhaus,
Niagra,
Erasure,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Litter,
The Human League,
Alton Ellis,
David Axelrod,
Angry Samoans,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Bar-Kays,
Can,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Quantec,
Stereo Dub,
Sister Nancy,
Interpol,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Pere Ubu,
Sight & Sound,
Thompson Twins,
Boredoms,
Y Pants,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Albert Ayler,
The Grass Roots,
Smog,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dark Day,
Roxette,
The Skatalites,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Fugs,
Underground Resistance,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
FM Einheit,
T. Rex,
Pet Shop Boys,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Misunderstood,
Cluster,
DNA,
Charles Mingus,
Jandek,
Mission of Burma,
The Gun Club,
The Fire Engines,
Lower 48,
Thee Headcoats,
Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic.
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.