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 Nauru 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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the theremin 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 Cal Tjader to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 The Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All The Sound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacques Brel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brass Construction record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
These Immortal Souls,
Eddi Front,
Idris Muhammad,
Juan Atkins,
The Stooges,
Cheater Slicks,
Wolf Eyes,
Minny Pops,
Rod Modell,
Unrelated Segments,
Severed Heads,
Crash Course in Science,
Henry Cow,
La Düsseldorf,
Minutemen,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Nils Olav,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Black Bananas,
Derrick Morgan,
Rotary Connection,
The Zeros,
Talk Talk,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Roy Ayers,
Silicon Teens,
Mission of Burma,
Roger Hodgson,
The Busters,
Toni Rubio,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Grandmaster Flash,
Nation of Ulysses,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Motorama,
Ultravox,
Drexciya,
Public Enemy,
Malaria!,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Soul Sonic Force,
Rekid,
Black Sheep,
8 Eyed Spy,
Todd Terry,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Quando Quango,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Ultimate Spinach,
Stetsasonic,
Flipper,
Animal Collective,
Cluster,
Connie Case,
Boredoms,
The Golliwogs,
Wasted Youth,
Funkadelic,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur.
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.