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 South Africa and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the oboe 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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Jesper Dahlback. All the underground hits.
All The Knickerbockers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharoah Sanders 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Associates record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kurtis Blow,
The Walker Brothers,
Dawn Penn,
KRS-One,
Ronan,
Eli Mardock,
JFA,
Donald Byrd,
The Leaves,
F. McDonald,
Index,
Tropical Tobacco,
Funkadelic,
Khruangbin,
New Age Steppers,
Kaleidoscope,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Real Kids,
Rod Modell,
Yaz,
MC5,
The Cramps,
Piero Umiliani,
Soul Sonic Force,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Barclay James Harvest,
Aaron Thompson,
Lyres,
Scott Walker,
John Cale,
The Skatalites,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Kas Product,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sexual Harrassment,
Banda Bassotti,
Liliput,
Half Japanese,
Roxette,
Main Source,
The Blackbyrds,
Pantaleimon,
FM Einheit,
Sugar Minott,
Tubeway Army,
Shoche,
Television Personalities,
Brothers Johnson,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Invisible,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Moebius,
The Mighty Diamonds,
ABC,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Bob Dylan,
The Slackers,
Lindisfarne,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Wake,
New York Dolls,
Lucky Dragons,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw, Warsaw.
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.