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 Mozambique and from Accra.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the theremin 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 Arab on Radar to the funk 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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All Derrick May tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fela Kuti record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 guitar and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Spandau Ballet 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?
The Gories,
Tres Demented,
The Cramps,
The Associates,
Glambeats Corp.,
James White and The Blacks,
Sällskapet,
Sister Nancy,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Reagan Youth,
These Immortal Souls,
Erasure,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Bill Near,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Trumans Water,
The Fuzztones,
Clear Light,
Dark Day,
DNA,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Birthday Party,
The Mojo Men,
Eric B and Rakim,
Piero Umiliani,
The Fugs,
Sexual Harrassment,
Anthony Braxton,
Suburban Knight,
Dorothy Ashby,
Subhumans,
Kerri Chandler,
Rakim,
Symarip,
Fear,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Eden Ahbez,
H. Thieme,
Severed Heads,
Au Pairs,
the Swans,
Gabor Szabo,
Harmonia,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Grandmaster Flash,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The American Breed,
Pierre Henry,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Leaves,
Derrick May,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Public Enemy,
Outsiders,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Wally Richardson,
KRS-One,
a-ha,
Crash Course in Science,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.