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 Russia and from Edmonton.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Robert Palmer 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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David Bowie. All the underground hits.
All Lou Reed & Metallica tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultramagnetic MC's 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terrestrial Tones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television Personalities,
The Slackers,
Althea and Donna,
Marc Almond,
Zero Boys,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Josef K,
Average White Band,
Byron Stingily,
Nils Olav,
The Toasters,
Pylon,
Suburban Knight,
Smog,
Arab on Radar,
Sarah Menescal,
Eve St. Jones,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Sparks,
Motorama,
Alton Ellis,
Boz Scaggs,
Depeche Mode,
X-Ray Spex,
Janne Schatter,
Cybotron,
Essential Logic,
Tommy Roe,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Silicon Teens,
The Gories,
Yusef Lateef,
Sonic Youth,
L. Decosne,
Sun City Girls,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Pet Shop Boys,
Eric Dolphy,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Johnny Osbourne,
Ice-T,
Robert Görl,
Kas Product,
Public Image Ltd.,
Man Parrish,
Kerri Chandler,
John Holt,
Matthew Bourne,
Gil Scott Heron,
U.S. Maple,
Guru Guru,
Altered Images,
Agitation Free,
Erasure,
Chris Corsano,
The Remains,
Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour, Sound Behaviour.
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.