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 Togo and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 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 Dennis Brown to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Eve St. Jones. All the underground hits.
All Cecil Taylor tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cure 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Buckinghams record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Das Ding,
Tubeway Army,
Fatback Band,
Radio Birdman,
JFA,
E-Dancer,
Iggy Pop,
Crispy Ambulance,
Joey Negro,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Pretty Things,
Andrew Hill,
Saccharine Trust,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Eden Ahbez,
the Fania All-Stars,
Rapeman,
Chris Corsano,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sam Rivers,
The Birthday Party,
EPMD,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Gang Gang Dance,
Ken Boothe,
Ice-T,
ABC,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Ronnie Foster,
Roger Hodgson,
Icehouse,
Arcadia,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Cameo,
Q and Not U,
Soft Machine,
The Divine Comedy,
Piero Umiliani,
One Last Wish,
Althea and Donna,
The Invisible,
Severed Heads,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Matthew Bourne,
The Mojo Men,
Derrick Morgan,
Don Cherry,
The Techniques,
the Human League,
The Happenings,
Warren Ellis,
CMW,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Durutti Column,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Dawn Penn,
Sight & Sound,
Ituana,
Robert Görl,
DJ Style,
Sun City Girls,
Pagans,
Pantytec, Pantytec, Pantytec, Pantytec.
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.