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 Italy and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Marmalade to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Dead C. All the underground hits.
All Slick Rick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott Heron 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Y Pants record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Carl Craig,
The Pop Group,
Terry Callier,
Angry Samoans,
The Blackbyrds,
Country Teasers,
The Golliwogs,
T.S.O.L.,
These Immortal Souls,
Pulsallama,
Erykah Badu,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Nik Kershaw,
Black Sheep,
Scion,
Harpers Bizarre,
Ponytail,
Essential Logic,
Piero Umiliani,
The New Christs,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bluetip,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Dawn Penn,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Gap Band,
Bill Wells,
Quadrant,
Model 500,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Soft Machine,
The Cowsills,
The Offenders,
The Toasters,
Deepchord,
a-ha,
Main Source,
Excepter,
D'Angelo,
Lou Christie,
Reuben Wilson,
Albert Ayler,
The Doors,
Delon & Dalcan,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Cosmic Jokers,
Roy Ayers,
Television,
The Seeds,
Bobby Sherman,
LL Cool J,
Big Daddy Kane,
Black Pus,
Brass Construction,
Nas,
Y Pants,
Shoche,
The Black Dice,
Minnie Riperton,
The Alarm Clocks,
Joensuu 1685,
Magma, Magma, Magma, Magma.
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.