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 India and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic 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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Faraquet to the rap 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 The Shadows of Knight. All the underground hits.
All Judy Mowatt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Last Poets record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quantec,
Audionom,
E-Dancer,
Matthew Bourne,
Youth Brigade,
Ultimate Spinach,
Surgeon,
The Leaves,
Intrusion,
F. McDonald,
Gang Starr,
Janne Schatter,
Marcia Griffiths,
the Fania All-Stars,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Franke,
Jeff Lynne,
Jimmy McGriff,
T.S.O.L.,
Moebius,
Icehouse,
the Human League,
Ponytail,
The Skatalites,
Drexciya,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Anthony Braxton,
CMW,
the Germs,
Rapeman,
U.S. Maple,
Metal Thangz,
Soft Cell,
Todd Terry,
Jacob Miller,
Nation of Ulysses,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Cure,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Buzzcocks,
Kaleidoscope,
Electric Prunes,
Roger Hodgson,
the Association,
The Fortunes,
Bobby Byrd,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tim Buckley,
Smog,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Fuzztones,
Wire,
Eden Ahbez,
Jerry's Kids,
World's Most,
Blancmange,
Black Flag,
The Angels of Light,
Tommy Roe,
Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone, Sly & The Family Stone.
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.