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 Algeria and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Rod Modell to the crunk 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 Lyres. All the underground hits.
All Fear tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantytec record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barrington Levy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Brick,
The Monochrome Set,
Davy DMX,
The Moody Blues,
Duran Duran,
48th St. Collective,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Mandrill,
Bill Near,
Average White Band,
Mo-Dettes,
U.S. Maple,
The Slits,
Von Mondo,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Litter,
Anakelly,
Vladislav Delay,
David Axelrod,
Delta 5,
Morten Harket,
the Human League,
The Red Krayola,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Blackbyrds,
Isaac Hayes,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Au Pairs,
Barry Ungar,
Sarah Menescal,
Man Parrish,
The Cramps,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Black Dice,
Subhumans,
The Wake,
The Cure,
The Modern Lovers,
Man Eating Sloth,
Warren Ellis,
Massinfluence,
Public Image Ltd.,
Interpol,
The Barracudas,
Aaron Thompson,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Bronski Beat,
Donny Hathaway,
Talk Talk,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Smiths,
CMW,
Terry Callier,
The Fuzztones,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Carl Craig,
Flamin' Groovies,
a-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha.
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.