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 Tanzania and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and London.
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 güiro 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 Wire to the punk 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 Quadrant. All the underground hits.
All Subhumans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Martian record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Subhumans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
ABBA,
Tubeway Army,
Symarip,
James White and The Blacks,
The Neon Judgement,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Quantec,
The Associates,
Dead Boys,
Brick,
One Last Wish,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Wolf Eyes,
Toni Rubio,
Kaleidoscope,
Roxy Music,
Scion,
Japan,
Kurtis Blow,
The Walker Brothers,
Nation of Ulysses,
La Düsseldorf,
Ohio Players,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Evens,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bizarre Inc.,
Jacques Brel,
Peter and Kerry,
Drexciya,
The Martian,
Neu!,
The Fall,
Organ,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Monochrome Set,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tom Boy,
Joe Finger,
The Birthday Party,
Stiv Bators,
Yazoo,
The Fuzztones,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Monks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Davy DMX,
Arab on Radar,
Echospace,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Jandek,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Modern Lovers,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
DNA,
Black Bananas,
Soulsonic Force,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.