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 Grenada and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 Michael McDonald 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 Minor Threat to the funk 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 Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Hutcherson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bush Tetras record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bauhaus 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?
Theoretical Girls,
The Busters,
Q65,
Flipper,
Harpers Bizarre,
Monks,
Jacob Miller,
Model 500,
Joyce Sims,
CMW,
Absolute Body Control,
Rod Modell,
Goldenarms,
Sixth Finger,
Echospace,
The Sound,
Organ,
The Tremeloes,
Man Parrish,
The Names,
Swell Maps,
Dark Day,
Mars,
Malaria!,
The Move,
Dennis Brown,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Subhumans,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ohio Players,
Jerry's Kids,
Circle Jerks,
David Axelrod,
Harmonia,
The Stooges,
Lightning Bolt,
Big Daddy Kane,
Kurtis Blow,
Fatback Band,
Country Teasers,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Bobby Womack,
Funky Four + One,
The Invisible,
Tom Boy,
the Normal,
The Fire Engines,
Massinfluence,
Nick Fraelich,
Donny Hathaway,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Thee Headcoats,
Deakin,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
A Certain Ratio,
Prince Buster,
Eric Dolphy,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Sun Ra,
Slave,
Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus.
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.