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 Andorra and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 güiro 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 Scratch Acid to the jazz 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 Juan Atkins. All the underground hits.
All Black Sheep tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a This Heat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nik Kershaw,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Minnie Riperton,
The American Breed,
Eurythmics,
Albert Ayler,
Essential Logic,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Durutti Column,
The Standells,
the Association,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Glambeats Corp.,
Banda Bassotti,
Funkadelic,
Fifty Foot Hose,
A Certain Ratio,
The Trojans,
The Buckinghams,
UT,
Don Cherry,
The Count Five,
Marc Almond,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Kerrie Biddell,
Skaos,
Swell Maps,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Nico,
The Fugs,
Nas,
Hot Snakes,
Grandmaster Flash,
Nirvana,
Stockholm Monsters,
Todd Rundgren,
Jacques Brel,
Second Layer,
Malaria!,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Jacob Miller,
The Vogues,
The Fire Engines,
Steve Hackett,
Sällskapet,
It's A Beautiful Day,
F. McDonald,
Girls At Our Best!,
In Retrospect,
Lyres,
The J.B.'s,
Marine Girls,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Gap Band,
Crispy Ambulance,
Lakeside,
The Angels of Light,
Main Source,
The Barracudas,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Oneida,
The Human League,
Simply Red, Simply Red, Simply Red, Simply Red.
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.