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 Chile and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Scan 7 to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Reuben Wilson. All the underground hits.
All Second Layer tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cosmic Jokers 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brothers Johnson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rakim,
Robert Wyatt,
Janne Schatter,
Altered Images,
Dark Day,
Cecil Taylor,
the Swans,
Joensuu 1685,
Can,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
John Cale,
Godley & Creme,
Al Stewart,
The Standells,
Byron Stingily,
Marcia Griffiths,
Patti Smith,
The Flesh Eaters,
Charles Mingus,
Babytalk,
Gabor Szabo,
John Coltrane,
Thee Headcoats,
the Human League,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Inner City,
The Smiths,
Fluxion,
Sun City Girls,
Slick Rick,
D'Angelo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Q and Not U,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Residents,
Skarface,
Swans,
Unwound,
Crispy Ambulance,
Technova,
Man Parrish,
Hot Snakes,
The Tremeloes,
X-Ray Spex,
Kurtis Blow,
John Foxx,
The Durutti Column,
The Monochrome Set,
Simply Red,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Black Pus,
cv313,
Spandau Ballet,
Sarah Menescal,
La Düsseldorf,
Bootsy Collins,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Mary Jane Girls,
Dual Sessions,
Brothers Johnson, Brothers Johnson, Brothers Johnson, Brothers Johnson.
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.