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 Tunisia and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in 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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 chamberlin 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 Jerry Gold Smith to the grime 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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Desert Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Crash Course in Science record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joensuu 1685,
the Soft Cell,
Main Source,
Pharoah Sanders,
It's A Beautiful Day,
10cc,
Minny Pops,
Eli Mardock,
Drive Like Jehu,
Harmonia,
John Holt,
Albert Ayler,
Warsaw,
Monolake,
Terrestrial Tones,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Selecter,
Parry Music,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
China Crisis,
Nick Fraelich,
Pantaleimon,
Alton Ellis,
Piero Umiliani,
Severed Heads,
Leonard Cohen,
In Retrospect,
John Lydon,
Urselle,
Sarah Menescal,
Rakim,
Country Teasers,
Freddie Wadling,
K-Klass,
Sällskapet,
Ralphi Rosario,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Divine Comedy,
Tim Buckley,
Sam Rivers,
the Slits,
Bizarre Inc.,
John Cale,
Japan,
KRS-One,
Josef K,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Laurel Aitken,
Swans,
The Standells,
ABC,
LL Cool J,
Outsiders,
Faraquet,
Wasted Youth,
Patti Smith,
Inner City,
Carl Craig,
Echospace,
Rod Modell,
Scott Walker,
Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants, Y Pants.
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.