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 Croatia and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Aloha Tigers to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Curtis Mayfield. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sarah Menescal 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Men They Couldn't Hang record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Minutemen,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Siglo XX,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Mandrill,
Index,
Harry Pussy,
Joe Finger,
Moss Icon,
Quantec,
Rakim,
Michelle Simonal,
Pantaleimon,
Second Layer,
Letta Mbulu,
Drive Like Jehu,
Niagra,
Crash Course in Science,
L. Decosne,
Godley & Creme,
Juan Atkins,
The Human League,
Ornette Coleman,
Kaleidoscope,
Bronski Beat,
The Buckinghams,
ABC,
Public Enemy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Half Japanese,
Amon Düül,
The Skatalites,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Mission of Burma,
Moebius,
Flash Fearless,
Sun City Girls,
Los Fastidios,
Piero Umiliani,
Wire,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
MDC,
Grauzone,
The Moleskins,
Archie Shepp,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Fat Boys,
Scratch Acid,
the Sonics,
Wasted Youth,
Tubeway Army,
Davy DMX,
FM Einheit,
Nick Fraelich,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Donald Byrd,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Barracudas,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
In Retrospect,
UT, UT, UT, UT.
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.