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 Congo and from Madrid.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Lou Reed 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 Moby Grape to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Kool Moe Dee. All the underground hits.
All The Cowsills tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Spandau Ballet record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radiohead record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cymande,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Walker Brothers,
Dawn Penn,
Second Layer,
Barrington Levy,
Man Parrish,
Peter & Gordon,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Althea and Donna,
Stockholm Monsters,
Black Bananas,
John Lydon,
The Kinks,
The Doobie Brothers,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Minnie Riperton,
Howard Jones,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lalann,
Mary Jane Girls,
Mad Mike,
Vainqueur,
The Mummies,
The Gladiators,
Roy Ayers,
Magma,
Au Pairs,
Zapp,
Gang Starr,
Yellowson,
Scientists,
the Soft Cell,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Section 25,
Stetsasonic,
Masters at Work,
Interpol,
Public Image Ltd.,
Robert Wyatt,
Ronnie Foster,
Skaos,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Electric Prunes,
Sight & Sound,
X-Ray Spex,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Gang of Four,
Matthew Halsall,
Main Source,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Popol Vuh,
Lower 48,
Theoretical Girls,
Visage,
The Victims,
Tomorrow,
Massinfluence,
Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy.
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.