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 Taiwan and from Lyon.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Kayak to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Fortunes. All the underground hits.
All Jacob Miller tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scrapy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Trumans Water,
Dorothy Ashby,
Urselle,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Busters,
Hoover,
The Associates,
Lyres,
The Names,
The Young Rascals,
Technova,
Wally Richardson,
Minny Pops,
John Foxx,
Von Mondo,
The Zeros,
Dark Day,
The Leaves,
Stereo Dub,
Prince Buster,
Magma,
The Invisible,
The Stooges,
Black Sheep,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
La Düsseldorf,
Guru Guru,
Moebius,
The Offenders,
Rekid,
Tommy Roe,
Half Japanese,
Suburban Knight,
Scan 7,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cecil Taylor,
Ice-T,
Zero Boys,
Robert Wyatt,
New Order,
The Moleskins,
Girls At Our Best!,
Piero Umiliani,
The J.B.'s,
The Gories,
Unrelated Segments,
X-102,
The Martian,
Carl Craig,
D'Angelo,
Skriet,
Peter & Gordon,
Mission of Burma,
the Association,
Desert Stars,
Yaz,
Lalann,
Barrington Levy,
Grey Daturas,
Deakin,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills, The Cowsills.
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.