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 Uzbekistan and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 clarinet 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 West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to the rap 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 Agitation Free. All the underground hits.
All Massinfluence tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mandrill record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jeru the Damaja record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jesper Dahlback,
The Saints,
Jandek,
The Detroit Cobras,
Derrick Morgan,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Ultra Naté,
Can,
U.S. Maple,
Scientists,
The Misunderstood,
Ten City,
Roger Hodgson,
Negative Approach,
The Grass Roots,
Saccharine Trust,
Marmalade,
Lucky Dragons,
Gichy Dan,
The Associates,
Wolf Eyes,
Depeche Mode,
Lungfish,
Minnie Riperton,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Country Teasers,
Cabaret Voltaire,
KRS-One,
OOIOO,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
James White and The Blacks,
Bush Tetras,
Essential Logic,
Faraquet,
New Order,
R.M.O.,
The Move,
John Cale,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
CMW,
Soft Machine,
Brothers Johnson,
Audionom,
Alice Coltrane,
Livin' Joy,
UT,
Deadbeat,
Fela Kuti,
Letta Mbulu,
Tim Buckley,
Curtis Mayfield,
ABBA,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Count Five,
Minor Threat,
Joey Negro,
Shoche,
The New Christs,
F. McDonald,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.