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 Congo and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 harpsichord 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 Ituana to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Blancmange. All the underground hits.
All Motorama tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Can record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Toni Rubio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
The Names,
Delta 5,
The Move,
EPMD,
Mary Jane Girls,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Derrick Morgan,
Surgeon,
Scientists,
Bootsy Collins,
The Skatalites,
Subhumans,
The Pretty Things,
Dual Sessions,
Leonard Cohen,
Junior Murvin,
Minnie Riperton,
Funkadelic,
Little Man,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Ossler,
Soft Cell,
PIL,
Terry Callier,
Drexciya,
Wings,
The Kinks,
Flamin' Groovies,
Basic Channel,
Zero Boys,
Don Cherry,
Alice Coltrane,
Albert Ayler,
David McCallum,
Blossom Toes,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Adolescents,
Kurtis Blow,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Yellowson,
Suicide,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Smoke,
Tim Buckley,
Stiv Bators,
Graham Central Station,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Neon Judgement,
Nas,
Jacques Brel,
China Crisis,
U.S. Maple,
Gastr Del Sol,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Smiths,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Fluxion,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Sonics,
The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter.
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.