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 Guinea-Bissau and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Oneida to the techno 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 The Martian. All the underground hits.
All Trumans Water tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dawn Penn record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Swans,
E-Dancer,
The Velvet Underground,
Slave,
Harry Pussy,
Desert Stars,
Kerrie Biddell,
Johnny Clarke,
Massinfluence,
Charles Mingus,
Jimmy McGriff,
Magazine,
Chris Corsano,
Organ,
Guru Guru,
The Pretty Things,
Ultravox,
The Neon Judgement,
Pharoah Sanders,
Colin Newman,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pantytec,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Radiohead,
Vainqueur,
In Retrospect,
Robert Hood,
Pylon,
Underground Resistance,
Scott Walker,
Frankie Knuckles,
H. Thieme,
Fugazi,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
John Cale,
The Moody Blues,
D'Angelo,
Alphaville,
Siglo XX,
Marshall Jefferson,
Das Ding,
MDC,
Cybotron,
The Detroit Cobras,
Radio Birdman,
Archie Shepp,
the Bar-Kays,
Jacob Miller,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Easy Going,
Quando Quango,
Barclay James Harvest,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Wire,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Gang of Four,
Funky Four + One,
the Human League,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Royal Trux, Royal Trux, Royal Trux, Royal Trux.
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.