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 East Timor and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 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 Wake to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Jimmy McGriff. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DJ Sneak record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 a güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soul II Soul record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tears for Fears,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Silicon Teens,
Intrusion,
the Fania All-Stars,
Make Up,
Deepchord,
EPMD,
Q and Not U,
Bootsy Collins,
Roy Ayers,
Hardrive,
Desert Stars,
Tom Boy,
DNA,
Magma,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Dirtbombs,
Blake Baxter,
Suicide,
Grauzone,
Can,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Young Marble Giants,
Soul II Soul,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Hashim,
The Index,
Lindisfarne,
Youth Brigade,
Josef K,
The Black Dice,
The Real Kids,
Urselle,
Pole,
Moebius,
X-102,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Fugs,
Crispian St. Peters,
Jandek,
Groovy Waters,
Matthew Bourne,
The Modern Lovers,
The Saints,
Ten City,
Scott Walker,
Tim Buckley,
Donald Byrd,
La Düsseldorf,
The Invisible,
Alice Coltrane,
Bobby Sherman,
Johnny Clarke,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Robert Görl,
The Martian, The Martian, The Martian, The Martian.
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.