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 Hungary and from Edmonton.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and New York.
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 808 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 Byron Stingily to the grunge 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 Hardrive. All the underground hits.
All Dawn Penn tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every DNA record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wally Richardson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slave,
Subhumans,
Cheater Slicks,
Nick Fraelich,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Swell Maps,
Gang Starr,
Joyce Sims,
Kerri Chandler,
Pierre Henry,
Roxy Music,
The Martian,
Danielle Patucci,
Girls At Our Best!,
Section 25,
Barry Ungar,
Amazonics,
Monolake,
Toni Rubio,
Dennis Brown,
Easy Going,
Electric Prunes,
Public Image Ltd.,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Graham Central Station,
Urselle,
Amon Düül,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
DNA,
John Coltrane,
the Slits,
Echospace,
Absolute Body Control,
Black Bananas,
Bootsy Collins,
Sonny Sharrock,
Underground Resistance,
Rhythm & Sound,
Nation of Ulysses,
B.T. Express,
The Sound,
Maleditus Sound,
The Vogues,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Loose Ends,
Roy Ayers,
Jacob Miller,
Rakim,
Alison Limerick,
Donny Hathaway,
Faraquet,
David Bowie,
The Leaves,
Ronnie Foster,
John Foxx,
The Blues Magoos,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Monks,
MDC,
Ken Boothe,
Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade, Youth Brigade.
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.