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 Dominica and from Johannesburg.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 E-Dancer to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Country Joe & The Fish. All the underground hits.
All Stereo Dub tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 an organ and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rufus Thomas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
Sight & Sound,
Barbara Tucker,
Youth Brigade,
Public Enemy,
The Vogues,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Henry Cow,
Mary Jane Girls,
Mo-Dettes,
Excepter,
Quantec,
John Foxx,
Half Japanese,
the Bar-Kays,
Chris Corsano,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Von Mondo,
Technova,
The Toasters,
UT,
Drexciya,
Ralphi Rosario,
Brand Nubian,
Susan Cadogan,
Jeff Mills,
London Community Gospel Choir,
China Crisis,
Gong,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Warsaw,
The Busters,
Newcleus,
Stockholm Monsters,
X-102,
Television Personalities,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Cure,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Funkadelic,
The Dave Clark Five,
Zapp,
Desert Stars,
Infiniti,
Steve Hackett,
Bobby Sherman,
Talk Talk,
Average White Band,
Scan 7,
Oblivians,
X-Ray Spex,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
John Lydon,
The Alarm Clocks,
Yusef Lateef,
Deakin,
Shoche,
The Litter,
the Germs,
Roy Ayers,
T. Rex,
The Five Americans, The Five Americans, The Five Americans, The Five Americans.
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.