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 Oman and from Mumbai.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 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 EPMD to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 F. McDonald. All the underground hits.
All New York Dolls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lee Hazlewood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hasil Adkins,
Eden Ahbez,
Bobby Womack,
Todd Terry,
The Fortunes,
Jeff Mills,
The Human League,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Pretty Things,
Cymande,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Happenings,
the Human League,
Youth Brigade,
Erasure,
Peter and Kerry,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Fugazi,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
T.S.O.L.,
R.M.O.,
Derrick May,
The Names,
Stiv Bators,
Arthur Verocai,
Sarah Menescal,
Kaleidoscope,
Bob Dylan,
The Cure,
Blossom Toes,
Wire,
The Five Americans,
Rhythm & Sound,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Ultravox,
E-Dancer,
The Fall,
The Gap Band,
Glambeats Corp.,
Robert Görl,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Victims,
Model 500,
Mission of Burma,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Colin Newman,
Radiohead,
The Wake,
The Misunderstood,
Ornette Coleman,
Quadrant,
Ronnie Foster,
Aswad,
The Music Machine,
Reuben Wilson,
The Sound,
Monolake,
Pierre Henry,
Sam Rivers,
Althea and Donna,
Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade, Marmalade.
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.