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 Algeria and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez 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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 kango's stein massive to the techno 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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Siglo XX tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kevin Saunderson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a In Retrospect record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Leonard Cohen,
Icehouse,
Brick,
The Wake,
The Monks,
The Smoke,
Thee Headcoats,
Eric B and Rakim,
Essential Logic,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lou Christie,
Sugar Minott,
Jerry's Kids,
Eric Dolphy,
John Holt,
The New Christs,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Shoche,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Selecter,
Section 25,
The Dead C,
Prince Buster,
The Star Department,
Nation of Ulysses,
Soul Sonic Force,
Magma,
The Moleskins,
Reuben Wilson,
Underground Resistance,
Bang On A Can,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Cameo,
The Vogues,
Spoonie Gee,
The Kinks,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Gladiators,
Lebanon Hanover,
Swell Maps,
Main Source,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Negative Approach,
Tropical Tobacco,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Hoover,
Scion,
Black Bananas,
Fugazi,
Pere Ubu,
The Last Poets,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Buzzcocks,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rites of Spring,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Sex Pistols,
Peter & Gordon,
Joey Negro,
Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills, Jeff Mills.
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.