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 Panama and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the snare 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 Popol Vuh to the techno 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 Saccharine Trust. All the underground hits.
All Unrelated Segments tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits 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 güiro and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians 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?
Harry Pussy,
Charles Mingus,
Nico,
Eden Ahbez,
48th St. Collective,
Gang Gang Dance,
Liliput,
Terrestrial Tones,
Robert Görl,
DJ Style,
John Foxx,
Average White Band,
The Sonics,
Wings,
Ornette Coleman,
The Smoke,
The Doors,
Anakelly,
Fugazi,
The Mummies,
Second Layer,
The New Christs,
Zapp,
Harmonia,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Lower 48,
Faraquet,
The Monochrome Set,
Porter Ricks,
Excepter,
Underground Resistance,
the Sonics,
ABC,
Minnie Riperton,
Fatback Band,
A Certain Ratio,
Scientists,
Mr. Review,
T. Rex,
Pharoah Sanders,
Throbbing Gristle,
World's Most,
Ronnie Foster,
The Birthday Party,
Sight & Sound,
Babytalk,
Yellowson,
Reagan Youth,
Tomorrow,
Quantec,
Yusef Lateef,
Agent Orange,
Amazonics,
Derrick Morgan,
Aswad,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Bad Manners,
Skarface,
Index,
Siglo XX,
This Heat,
June of 44, June of 44, June of 44, June of 44.
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.