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 Belgium and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the oboe 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 Black Moon to the techno 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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bad Manners 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Simply Red,
Harmonia,
Yazoo,
Motorama,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Marine Girls,
Rekid,
The Count Five,
Lakeside,
Lee Hazlewood,
Boredoms,
Isaac Hayes,
Mission of Burma,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Index,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Andrew Hill,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Barracudas,
The Mojo Men,
Ponytail,
Essential Logic,
Drexciya,
Matthew Bourne,
Depeche Mode,
Slave,
The Seeds,
Television,
Royal Trux,
Nas,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
New York Dolls,
Henry Cow,
Unrelated Segments,
Bootsy Collins,
Vainqueur,
Scott Walker,
Con Funk Shun,
Boz Scaggs,
The Real Kids,
The Moody Blues,
CMW,
Amon Düül,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Black Bananas,
Gang of Four,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Evens,
the Swans,
Barclay James Harvest,
Trumans Water,
Todd Terry,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Bill Wells,
Brass Construction,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lower 48,
Erykah Badu,
Ohio Players,
Brand Nubian,
ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC.
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.