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 Cuba and from Tehran.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 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 Slick Rick to the punk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Funky Four + One. All the underground hits.
All PIL tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Inner City record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Vogues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Invisible,
Don Cherry,
Swell Maps,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
New York Dolls,
The Real Kids,
The Electric Prunes,
Sparks,
Technova,
Television,
The Detroit Cobras,
X-Ray Spex,
Goldenarms,
Eric Dolphy,
The Fall,
Donny Hathaway,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Girls At Our Best!,
Urselle,
Johnny Osbourne,
JFA,
Joey Negro,
Connie Case,
The Fuzztones,
One Last Wish,
Schoolly D,
The Dead C,
The Count Five,
Rhythm & Sound,
Marmalade,
Ponytail,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
U.S. Maple,
Blancmange,
Boredoms,
Symarip,
Animal Collective,
Wings,
Black Pus,
Aural Exciters,
Television Personalities,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Maleditus Sound,
Nik Kershaw,
Cecil Taylor,
Arab on Radar,
Lalann,
H. Thieme,
Judy Mowatt,
Sister Nancy,
Fugazi,
Flipper,
Index,
Cybotron,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Kenny Larkin,
Public Image Ltd.,
Chris Corsano,
Liliput,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Tremeloes,
Eddi Front,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Delta 5,
MC5, MC5, MC5, MC5.
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.