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 Liberia and from Mexico City.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Barbara Tucker to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Alphaville. All the underground hits.
All Bauhaus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Neu! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blues Magoos record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Liaisons Dangereuses,
R.M.O.,
Chrome,
The Monks,
Funky Four + One,
Leonard Cohen,
Guru Guru,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Au Pairs,
La Düsseldorf,
Con Funk Shun,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Royal Trux,
Altered Images,
Scientists,
Max Romeo,
New Order,
The Slits,
The Seeds,
The New Christs,
K-Klass,
Steve Hackett,
Urselle,
Faraquet,
Public Enemy,
Wings,
The Tremeloes,
Sister Nancy,
The Moody Blues,
The Black Dice,
Make Up,
The Music Machine,
Gang Starr,
Saccharine Trust,
The American Breed,
Mary Jane Girls,
Roxy Music,
Little Man,
The Shadows of Knight,
Radio Birdman,
The Zeros,
Black Moon,
Kool Moe Dee,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Grandmaster Flash,
Bobby Sherman,
Matthew Halsall,
Bootsy Collins,
Pylon,
ABBA,
Bob Dylan,
Rotary Connection,
Crash Course in Science,
Gang Green,
MC5,
Crooked Eye,
Oneida,
The Index,
the Slits,
The Real Kids,
Brass Construction,
Sandy B,
Lalann,
Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby, Dorothy Ashby.
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.