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 Tuvalu and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Curtis Mayfield to the disco 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 Robert Hood. All the underground hits.
All Todd Rundgren tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Negative Approach 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Michelle Simonal record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Technova,
Funky Four + One,
R.M.O.,
Deadbeat,
Young Marble Giants,
The Young Rascals,
Skarface,
The Motions,
Mission of Burma,
The Modern Lovers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Music Machine,
Wally Richardson,
Juan Atkins,
T.S.O.L.,
The Evens,
Scott Walker,
the Human League,
Soft Cell,
The Gladiators,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Stetsasonic,
Grey Daturas,
Ten City,
Zero Boys,
Lyres,
Iggy Pop,
Alice Coltrane,
The Skatalites,
Ronan,
Marvin Gaye,
Ossler,
Symarip,
Masters at Work,
Man Parrish,
Niagra,
Bobby Byrd,
the Slits,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Animal Collective,
The Monks,
Au Pairs,
Cymande,
David Bowie,
The Residents,
Mad Mike,
Drexciya,
T. Rex,
Camouflage,
the Fania All-Stars,
Public Enemy,
Lucky Dragons,
Jeru the Damaja,
Black Pus,
Sound Behaviour,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Parry Music,
Aural Exciters,
Isaac Hayes,
Matthew Bourne,
Flash Fearless,
Godley & Creme,
The Trojans, The Trojans, The Trojans, The Trojans.
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.