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 Ukraine and from Mexico City.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 synthesizer 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 The Five Americans to the disco 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 Sun Ra Arkestra. All the underground hits.
All The Slackers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantaleimon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 mellotron and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glambeats Corp. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Whodini,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dual Sessions,
The Grass Roots,
The American Breed,
Crime,
Talk Talk,
Alice Coltrane,
Letta Mbulu,
Lalo Schifrin,
Jacques Brel,
Ultimate Spinach,
Slave,
The Vogues,
Scott Walker,
Visage,
Eden Ahbez,
Ituana,
Motorama,
Max Romeo,
T. Rex,
Lakeside,
Excepter,
Moebius,
The Evens,
Suburban Knight,
Sun Ra,
Public Image Ltd.,
Nico,
Soft Machine,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Nirvana,
The Selecter,
Gong,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Tremeloes,
The Techniques,
Sexual Harrassment,
Boogie Down Productions,
Loose Ends,
The Pretty Things,
Infiniti,
Little Man,
Pagans,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Ludus,
The Last Poets,
The Wake,
Section 25,
The Neon Judgement,
Brand Nubian,
Main Source,
Shoche,
Bush Tetras,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Echospace,
Robert Hood,
Hasil Adkins,
X-102,
Zero Boys, Zero Boys, Zero Boys, Zero Boys.
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.