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 Guatemala and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 rhodes 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 Gang Green to the crunk 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Marmalade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brick record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Teenage Jesus and the Jerks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Searchers,
Harmonia,
Juan Atkins,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Archie Shepp,
Q and Not U,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Nas,
The Five Americans,
PIL,
Warsaw,
Aaron Thompson,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Standells,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
MDC,
Joyce Sims,
Steve Hackett,
Bill Wells,
Underground Resistance,
The Move,
Minny Pops,
K-Klass,
Sarah Menescal,
The Zeros,
The Vogues,
Ronnie Foster,
Agitation Free,
Flamin' Groovies,
Gregory Isaacs,
Derrick Morgan,
Mandrill,
Scott Walker,
Alison Limerick,
Ice-T,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Last Poets,
Jerry's Kids,
Nik Kershaw,
B.T. Express,
Arab on Radar,
Laurel Aitken,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Junior Murvin,
Angry Samoans,
The J.B.'s,
Aswad,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Hardrive,
Khruangbin,
Kerrie Biddell,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Johnny Clarke,
This Heat,
Janne Schatter,
David McCallum,
Von Mondo,
Bush Tetras,
Susan Cadogan,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Offenders,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.