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 Tanzania and from Toronto.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Ken Boothe to the rap 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 The Fugs. All the underground hits.
All Oneida tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vladislav Delay record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deepchord record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Human League,
Dave Gahan,
Sun Ra,
The Vogues,
Gil Scott Heron,
Curtis Mayfield,
Cameo,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Pussy Galore,
John Holt,
Stiv Bators,
Camouflage,
Freddie Wadling,
Oneida,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Joe Finger,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Roy Ayers,
World's Most,
Country Teasers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Swell Maps,
Laurel Aitken,
Patti Smith,
Vainqueur,
Saccharine Trust,
Anakelly,
The Star Department,
Jimmy McGriff,
Excepter,
Wolf Eyes,
Main Source,
The Red Krayola,
Avey Tare,
Sun City Girls,
Mo-Dettes,
Connie Case,
Alton Ellis,
In Retrospect,
Rosa Yemen,
Neil Young,
Pharoah Sanders,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Wally Richardson,
The New Christs,
Talk Talk,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Throbbing Gristle,
Eve St. Jones,
Carl Craig,
The Raincoats,
Smog,
The Walker Brothers,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Dave Clark Five,
Fluxion,
Nils Olav,
The Detroit Cobras,
Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour.
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.