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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 David Bowie 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 Drive Like Jehu to the disco 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family. All the underground hits.
All Slick Rick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rakim 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gabor Szabo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Underground Resistance,
Television,
Porter Ricks,
Subhumans,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Swell Maps,
Scrapy,
Saccharine Trust,
Kenny Larkin,
Royal Trux,
The Leaves,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Walker Brothers,
E-Dancer,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Cameo,
Con Funk Shun,
Electric Prunes,
Sugar Minott,
The Knickerbockers,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
ABC,
Lower 48,
Robert Wyatt,
The Misunderstood,
Pantaleimon,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
JFA,
Kurtis Blow,
Fluxion,
Make Up,
The Trojans,
X-Ray Spex,
Glenn Branca,
Malaria!,
Gang of Four,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
D'Angelo,
Maleditus Sound,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Cybotron,
T.S.O.L.,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Marshall Jefferson,
Little Man,
Robert Görl,
Model 500,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Wake,
The Flesh Eaters,
Skaos,
The Motions,
The Dead C,
Jeff Mills,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Lou Christie,
The Vogues,
Pussy Galore,
Von Mondo,
Minnie Riperton,
8 Eyed Spy,
Andrew Hill,
The Martian,
Sandy B, Sandy B, Sandy B, Sandy B.
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.