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 Kazakhstan and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 Mumbai and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 organ 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 Country Teasers to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All Kayak tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Y Pants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Last Poets,
Tubeway Army,
The Grass Roots,
Das Ding,
The New Christs,
Sun Ra,
Porter Ricks,
The Moody Blues,
Sugar Minott,
X-101,
Colin Newman,
Spoonie Gee,
Deadbeat,
China Crisis,
Scion,
Youth Brigade,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Vogues,
Los Fastidios,
The Monks,
Marvin Gaye,
Gregory Isaacs,
Suicide,
Man Eating Sloth,
Soft Machine,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Slave,
Ronan,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Eddi Front,
Bobby Womack,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Monochrome Set,
June of 44,
Ponytail,
Arab on Radar,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Delta 5,
The Flesh Eaters,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bobby Sherman,
Derrick May,
Stereo Dub,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Chris & Cosey,
Nirvana,
Fad Gadget,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Buzzcocks,
Prince Buster,
Quantec,
ABC,
Nas,
The Knickerbockers,
Von Mondo,
MDC,
Simply Red,
Scan 7, Scan 7, Scan 7, Scan 7.
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.