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 Malawi and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 It's A Beautiful Day to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Matthew Halsall. All the underground hits.
All Eric Copeland tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Monks 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mantronix record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sugar Minott,
Max Romeo,
Gang of Four,
Slick Rick,
The Motions,
The Music Machine,
Deadbeat,
The Names,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Infiniti,
Scrapy,
Nils Olav,
Leonard Cohen,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Fatback Band,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Pharoah Sanders,
Parry Music,
Ken Boothe,
Youth Brigade,
Moss Icon,
Pagans,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Mojo Men,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Absolute Body Control,
Brothers Johnson,
Erykah Badu,
Ludus,
Funkadelic,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Sonny Sharrock,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
B.T. Express,
John Holt,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
kango's stein massive,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Mars,
The Seeds,
The American Breed,
Barrington Levy,
Hashim,
The Associates,
Donny Hathaway,
Sonic Youth,
Electric Prunes,
Eden Ahbez,
Eve St. Jones,
Harpers Bizarre,
Whodini,
Masters at Work,
Rekid,
Spoonie Gee,
The Fugs,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Joy Division,
Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid.
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.