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 Burkina and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 linndrum 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 Slave to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Fat Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott Heron 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Archie Shepp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Pere Ubu,
Johnny Clarke,
The Gap Band,
Monks,
Black Bananas,
Henry Cow,
Buzzcocks,
Ponytail,
The Human League,
Marc Almond,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Star Department,
Das Ding,
Cymande,
The Walker Brothers,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Alarm Clocks,
Franke,
The Detroit Cobras,
Loose Ends,
Jesper Dahlback,
DJ Sneak,
Zapp,
Minor Threat,
The Kinks,
The Associates,
ABBA,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Talk Talk,
Sexual Harrassment,
Icehouse,
Echospace,
T.S.O.L.,
Avey Tare,
Funky Four + One,
Crooked Eye,
One Last Wish,
Todd Terry,
Arcadia,
Aural Exciters,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Section 25,
Grandmaster Flash,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Fall,
The Dead C,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Swell Maps,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Reagan Youth,
Roy Ayers,
Soft Cell,
Joy Division,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Dual Sessions,
Connie Case,
Neu!,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Erasure,
Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth.
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.