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 Ghana and from New York.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Jeru the Damaja to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 It's A Beautiful Day. All the underground hits.
All Stetsasonic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quadrant record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yaz,
Slick Rick,
Roxette,
Barclay James Harvest,
Eden Ahbez,
H. Thieme,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pole,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Animal Collective,
Delta 5,
Tommy Roe,
Rufus Thomas,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Hasil Adkins,
Derrick May,
Harmonia,
Surgeon,
cv313,
Pagans,
Swell Maps,
E-Dancer,
The Electric Prunes,
The Evens,
The Zeros,
Dawn Penn,
The Seeds,
Ornette Coleman,
Robert Wyatt,
Mars,
EPMD,
Malaria!,
Rapeman,
The Music Machine,
Sam Rivers,
The Gap Band,
Darondo,
Rhythm & Sound,
Flash Fearless,
The Divine Comedy,
Barrington Levy,
The Fall,
The Mummies,
Skarface,
Unwound,
Pantytec,
The Smoke,
Scrapy,
Severed Heads,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Aaron Thompson,
The Cowsills,
John Cale,
Cluster,
Essential Logic,
Motorama,
Wasted Youth,
Infiniti,
Yusef Lateef,
Bluetip,
Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry, Peter and Kerry.
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.