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 Seychelles and from Delhi.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Glasgow.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the theremin 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 Joensuu 1685 to the grunge 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 Sun City Girls. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Osbourne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boredoms record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DJ Style record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rites of Spring,
Television Personalities,
Scrapy,
ABC,
Basic Channel,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Jandek,
Wire,
The Monks,
Index,
Minutemen,
The Invisible,
The Sonics,
Big Daddy Kane,
Tres Demented,
H. Thieme,
X-Ray Spex,
Amazonics,
Ultravox,
Trumans Water,
Y Pants,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
The Happenings,
Crooked Eye,
The Doors,
Wally Richardson,
48th St. Collective,
Excepter,
Sugar Minott,
The Slits,
Joy Division,
Bill Near,
Nils Olav,
The Moody Blues,
Marmalade,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Amon Düül,
Nirvana,
Monolake,
In Retrospect,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Archie Shepp,
Mandrill,
The Durutti Column,
Funky Four + One,
The Wake,
Dennis Brown,
Procol Harum,
The United States of America,
Bizarre Inc.,
KRS-One,
Eric Copeland,
Adolescents,
the Normal,
Soulsonic Force,
Susan Cadogan,
Bobby Womack,
Sonic Youth,
Hoover, Hoover, Hoover, Hoover.
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.