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 Somalia and from Manchester.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Beijing.
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 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 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 The Trojans to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam. All the underground hits.
All The Sound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jesper Dahlbäck 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lonnie Liston Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Hutcherson,
Section 25,
Gabor Szabo,
EPMD,
Urselle,
Darondo,
The Last Poets,
Harmonia,
Kaleidoscope,
Sight & Sound,
World's Most,
Moebius,
Y Pants,
Circle Jerks,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Agent Orange,
Brick,
Matthew Bourne,
Fluxion,
The Misunderstood,
Aaron Thompson,
Alphaville,
Ohio Players,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Soul II Soul,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Real Kids,
Robert Wyatt,
Television Personalities,
Moby Grape,
Maleditus Sound,
Soft Cell,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
AZ,
Basic Channel,
Kurtis Blow,
Yusef Lateef,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Cameo,
Marvin Gaye,
Soft Machine,
Trumans Water,
The Names,
Sällskapet,
Jeru the Damaja,
Animal Collective,
Fatback Band,
Little Man,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Scrapy,
Bobby Byrd,
Ludus,
Swell Maps,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Rosa Yemen,
The Black Dice,
The Smoke,
The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings.
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.