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 Maldives and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Matthew Bourne. All the underground hits.
All Jimmy McGriff tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Halsall 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tommy Roe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marvin Gaye,
Interpol,
Pantaleimon,
The Golliwogs,
The Durutti Column,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Sonics,
The Fugs,
Au Pairs,
Lyres,
Gang Gang Dance,
Radio Birdman,
The Mighty Diamonds,
X-101,
Cecil Taylor,
The Walker Brothers,
Scientists,
The Smoke,
Oblivians,
The Litter,
Josef K,
The Music Machine,
Eurythmics,
Gang Green,
the Sonics,
The Skatalites,
The Slits,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Ornette Coleman,
Mission of Burma,
The Pop Group,
Severed Heads,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Althea and Donna,
Wally Richardson,
Aswad,
Ronnie Foster,
Lalann,
Kerrie Biddell,
Erykah Badu,
Sarah Menescal,
Jimmy McGriff,
Ultra Naté,
Basic Channel,
World's Most,
Sex Pistols,
Boredoms,
MDC,
Wings,
DJ Sneak,
Shuggie Otis,
The Dirtbombs,
Thompson Twins,
Kenny Larkin,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Peter & Gordon,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.