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 Palau and from Glasgow.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 arpeggiator 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 Cymande to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All Charles Mingus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smoke record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronnie Foster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Juan Atkins,
Porter Ricks,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Young Rascals,
The Mojo Men,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Con Funk Shun,
Minor Threat,
Half Japanese,
A Certain Ratio,
Gang Gang Dance,
Rod Modell,
Howard Jones,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Matthew Bourne,
Wolf Eyes,
Sun City Girls,
Ludus,
Loose Ends,
The Star Department,
Kenny Larkin,
Lyres,
John Holt,
The Last Poets,
Skarface,
the Sonics,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
AZ,
the Soft Cell,
Carl Craig,
World's Most,
Josef K,
The Alarm Clocks,
Brand Nubian,
U.S. Maple,
Kayak,
Sarah Menescal,
The Index,
Boogie Down Productions,
Darondo,
Lalann,
Graham Central Station,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Gregory Isaacs,
John Lydon,
Country Teasers,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Bill Wells,
The New Christs,
DJ Style,
Erasure,
Underground Resistance,
The Fall,
Sound Behaviour,
Todd Rundgren,
Camberwell Now,
Man Parrish,
Sam Rivers,
the Human League,
John Coltrane,
Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads.
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.