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 Brunei and from Paris.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and New York.
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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Cabaret Voltaire to the techno kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All Black Moon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chrome record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Hill,
Grandmaster Flash,
Roy Ayers,
Pagans,
John Lydon,
Siglo XX,
Wire,
Duran Duran,
The Human League,
10cc,
Deepchord,
Babytalk,
Simply Red,
Sugar Minott,
Bush Tetras,
Albert Ayler,
Matthew Bourne,
Ituana,
Agent Orange,
Derrick May,
Roger Hodgson,
Alice Coltrane,
Gong,
The Smoke,
The Gladiators,
China Crisis,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Black Dice,
Suburban Knight,
Bobby Byrd,
Pere Ubu,
Sun Ra,
Ossler,
The Velvet Underground,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
David Bowie,
The Invisible,
the Association,
The Walker Brothers,
Urselle,
Shuggie Otis,
Yusef Lateef,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
New Age Steppers,
Barclay James Harvest,
Hashim,
Crime,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Alarm Clocks,
Joyce Sims,
Terrestrial Tones,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Saints,
Cheater Slicks,
Rufus Thomas,
Bronski Beat,
Maurizio,
The Monks,
Porter Ricks,
Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band.
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.