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 Samoa and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Angels of Light to the electroclash 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 Yellowson. All the underground hits.
All Icehouse tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Litter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gregory Isaacs,
Smog,
Boogie Down Productions,
The United States of America,
Faust,
La Düsseldorf,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
In Retrospect,
Ornette Coleman,
Hoover,
The Gap Band,
Kaleidoscope,
The Divine Comedy,
Donny Hathaway,
The Neon Judgement,
Simply Red,
Grandmaster Flash,
Joey Negro,
Kool Moe Dee,
48th St. Collective,
The Fuzztones,
Stetsasonic,
Schoolly D,
Junior Murvin,
E-Dancer,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
the Slits,
Delta 5,
Roxy Music,
Q and Not U,
Gichy Dan,
The Golliwogs,
Warren Ellis,
Scientists,
Buzzcocks,
Mark Hollis,
Roger Hodgson,
Rufus Thomas,
Prince Buster,
Soulsonic Force,
The Last Poets,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
cv313,
Sparks,
Johnny Clarke,
The Slits,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Fugs,
Radio Birdman,
Barry Ungar,
Pantytec,
Suburban Knight,
A Certain Ratio,
Stockholm Monsters,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
JFA,
Darondo,
Lakeside,
the Bar-Kays,
Magazine, Magazine, Magazine, Magazine.
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.