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 New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Human League 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 Don Cherry. All the underground hits.
All Silicon Teens tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crime 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Grass Roots,
Das Ding,
Pere Ubu,
Half Japanese,
Make Up,
Schoolly D,
Yusef Lateef,
T. Rex,
Scrapy,
Derrick May,
Crispy Ambulance,
Altered Images,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Iggy Pop,
Bill Near,
Gichy Dan,
Ken Boothe,
Swell Maps,
Morten Harket,
Monks,
Curtis Mayfield,
Radiohead,
Stereo Dub,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Peter and Kerry,
Icehouse,
Anthony Braxton,
The Birthday Party,
Sugar Minott,
Davy DMX,
Trumans Water,
The Techniques,
Kerri Chandler,
Maurizio,
Vainqueur,
The Electric Prunes,
The Skatalites,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Saccharine Trust,
Crime,
Oneida,
The Tremeloes,
Smog,
Surgeon,
China Crisis,
Eve St. Jones,
Television Personalities,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Leaves,
Rapeman,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Howard Jones,
Carl Craig,
Byron Stingily,
Andrew Hill,
Lower 48,
Crooked Eye,
Althea and Donna,
David McCallum,
Alice Coltrane,
Ornette Coleman,
Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade.
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.