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 Croatia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 Lou Reed 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 Fela Kuti to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 David McCallum. All the underground hits.
All DeepChord presents Echospace tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Essential Logic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
Swell Maps,
Junior Murvin,
The Grass Roots,
Lyres,
Soulsonic Force,
U.S. Maple,
Sam Rivers,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Eddi Front,
Pole,
Chrome,
Scrapy,
Cecil Taylor,
Dennis Brown,
Agitation Free,
Sound Behaviour,
These Immortal Souls,
Agent Orange,
Archie Shepp,
Bill Near,
Sun City Girls,
Basic Channel,
John Lydon,
Idris Muhammad,
Kaleidoscope,
Excepter,
Yellowson,
The Human League,
The Zeros,
Whodini,
Mark Hollis,
Tropical Tobacco,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Neon Judgement,
Juan Atkins,
Mission of Burma,
Unrelated Segments,
Fela Kuti,
Altered Images,
CMW,
Bobby Womack,
The Wake,
KRS-One,
The Techniques,
Echospace,
Janne Schatter,
Nick Fraelich,
The Fugs,
The Five Americans,
Godley & Creme,
Desert Stars,
The New Christs,
The Angels of Light,
Harmonia,
EPMD,
Sly & The Family Stone,
In Retrospect,
Zero Boys,
Peter & Gordon,
Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon, Moss Icon.
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.