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 Ivory Coast and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Lyon.
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 spring reverb 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 OOIOO to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Flash Fearless tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ronan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Music Machine,
The Pretty Things,
Donny Hathaway,
Gichy Dan,
Hot Snakes,
Albert Ayler,
The Remains,
Radiohead,
Livin' Joy,
Scratch Acid,
Jimmy McGriff,
Little Man,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Rod Modell,
Peter and Kerry,
kango's stein massive,
Skaos,
Cecil Taylor,
Unwound,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Jacob Miller,
Crispian St. Peters,
Trumans Water,
Delta 5,
Eli Mardock,
Idris Muhammad,
Colin Newman,
Motorama,
Eurythmics,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Talk Talk,
Kerri Chandler,
Susan Cadogan,
The Shadows of Knight,
Josef K,
Gregory Isaacs,
Au Pairs,
The Young Rascals,
Underground Resistance,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
James White and The Blacks,
Funkadelic,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lebanon Hanover,
Howard Jones,
AZ,
Gong,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Dennis Brown,
Nas,
Ronan,
Hardrive,
Lalo Schifrin,
Robert Görl,
Public Image Ltd.,
Gang of Four,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Sex Pistols,
Godley & Creme,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Byron Stingily,
Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection.
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.