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 Japan and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 Idris Muhammad to the disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Louis and Bebe Barron. All the underground hits.
All Pet Shop Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Holt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer 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 Blackbyrds,
Roxy Music,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Robert Hood,
Marshall Jefferson,
Theoretical Girls,
Blancmange,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Nico,
Harpers Bizarre,
AZ,
Blossom Toes,
Mandrill,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Swell Maps,
Duran Duran,
Rosa Yemen,
Jacques Brel,
Lebanon Hanover,
Cymande,
Harry Pussy,
Stereo Dub,
World's Most,
The Sound,
The Grass Roots,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Bauhaus,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Michelle Simonal,
Bush Tetras,
The Real Kids,
Soft Machine,
The Zeros,
Yusef Lateef,
X-Ray Spex,
The Associates,
DJ Sneak,
Sixth Finger,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Young Rascals,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Sisters of Mercy,
David Bowie,
Negative Approach,
Au Pairs,
Heaven 17,
Lee Hazlewood,
Anthony Braxton,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Los Fastidios,
Rakim,
Eric Dolphy,
David McCallum,
Letta Mbulu,
Black Sheep,
Skarface,
Wire,
The Moody Blues,
Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads, Severed Heads.
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.