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 Jordan and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Mexico City.
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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Malaria! to the electroclash 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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade. All the underground hits.
All Charles Mingus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
K-Klass,
The Moleskins,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Piero Umiliani,
Clear Light,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Godley & Creme,
The Flesh Eaters,
Black Bananas,
Procol Harum,
The Electric Prunes,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Doors,
Visage,
Pharoah Sanders,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Fugazi,
Gang of Four,
The Standells,
These Immortal Souls,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Los Fastidios,
Talk Talk,
Eric Dolphy,
Technova,
The Monks,
Barry Ungar,
Thee Headcoats,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
New Order,
The Dead C,
Johnny Clarke,
Ituana,
Animal Collective,
Unwound,
Gregory Isaacs,
Rotary Connection,
Chris Corsano,
The Fuzztones,
The Leaves,
The Smoke,
Bronski Beat,
Johnny Osbourne,
Jacques Brel,
Cecil Taylor,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
LL Cool J,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Schoolly D,
R.M.O.,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Nik Kershaw,
The Golliwogs,
David Bowie,
Dark Day,
KRS-One,
The Durutti Column,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
DNA,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Pulsallama,
The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds.
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.