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 Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide show in New York.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 the Swans to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Gladiators. All the underground hits.
All The Cosmic Jokers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cecil Taylor 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lee Hazlewood record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott Heron,
K-Klass,
David Bowie,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Doobie Brothers,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Country Teasers,
Siglo XX,
Tomorrow,
F. McDonald,
Black Flag,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Happenings,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Big Daddy Kane,
Joe Smooth,
Colin Newman,
The Young Rascals,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Yusef Lateef,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
A Certain Ratio,
Sugar Minott,
Matthew Bourne,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Robert Hood,
The Modern Lovers,
Whodini,
Blancmange,
Danielle Patucci,
Can,
Prince Buster,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Loose Ends,
Connie Case,
Jimmy McGriff,
Thee Headcoats,
Peter & Gordon,
The Beau Brummels,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Stiv Bators,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Soft Cell,
Minny Pops,
The Busters,
Fad Gadget,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Black Dice,
Amon Düül II,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Techniques,
Mad Mike,
Deakin,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Pretty Things,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sonny Sharrock,
Second Layer,
Liliput,
Faust,
Bill Near,
Sparks, Sparks, Sparks, Sparks.
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.