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 Bosnia Herzegovina and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Mo-Dettes to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Faraquet. All the underground hits.
All Joensuu 1685 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eyeless In Gaza record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Trojans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eden Ahbez,
Funkadelic,
Suicide,
Eric Dolphy,
Skaos,
Moss Icon,
Tom Boy,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Rosa Yemen,
Brothers Johnson,
Au Pairs,
Kenny Larkin,
Blossom Toes,
June Days,
Ten City,
Silicon Teens,
The Last Poets,
The Knickerbockers,
Surgeon,
Lightning Bolt,
Eurythmics,
Pagans,
X-Ray Spex,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Moebius,
Visage,
The Modern Lovers,
The Sound,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
8 Eyed Spy,
Ituana,
Wasted Youth,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sister Nancy,
Zero Boys,
Godley & Creme,
Marvin Gaye,
Warsaw,
Marc Almond,
Black Bananas,
The Velvet Underground,
Cheater Slicks,
Gichy Dan,
Sällskapet,
Alton Ellis,
Monolake,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Raincoats,
Andrew Hill,
Gang of Four,
Bizarre Inc.,
Masters at Work,
Los Fastidios,
Henry Cow,
The Doobie Brothers,
Dorothy Ashby,
X-102,
OOIOO,
Isaac Hayes,
Sugar Minott,
Outsiders,
The Evens,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman.
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.