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 Palau and from Lyon.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Harry Pussy. All the underground hits.
All MC5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Althea and Donna 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Justin Hinds & The Dominoes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sam Rivers,
Letta Mbulu,
The Skatalites,
The Selecter,
Anthony Braxton,
Average White Band,
Public Enemy,
New Age Steppers,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Boredoms,
Isaac Hayes,
Drexciya,
The Kinks,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Matthew Halsall,
B.T. Express,
Ronnie Foster,
James White and The Blacks,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Negative Approach,
Jesper Dahlback,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Knickerbockers,
Hashim,
Lee Hazlewood,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Tremeloes,
Unwound,
Public Image Ltd.,
H. Thieme,
X-Ray Spex,
Second Layer,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Angry Samoans,
Au Pairs,
The Fuzztones,
Sun Ra,
Johnny Osbourne,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The New Christs,
The Move,
the Human League,
D'Angelo,
Soulsonic Force,
Ludus,
Scientists,
AZ,
Peter & Gordon,
Pagans,
Fluxion,
Barbara Tucker,
Black Sheep,
K-Klass,
John Cale,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Pantaleimon,
June of 44,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Marmalade,
Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail.
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.