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 South Sudan and from Tokyo.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 organ 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 grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Swans. All the underground hits.
All Harmonia tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every One Last Wish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yellowson 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?
The United States of America,
The Dead C,
Stockholm Monsters,
Cecil Taylor,
Kevin Saunderson,
Pylon,
Donald Byrd,
Deakin,
Massinfluence,
Tommy Roe,
Loose Ends,
The American Breed,
Gang Starr,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Lebanon Hanover,
Jesper Dahlback,
Dorothy Ashby,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Q65,
The Standells,
Lucky Dragons,
U.S. Maple,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Black Pus,
Matthew Bourne,
Funkadelic,
Vladislav Delay,
Hasil Adkins,
The Velvet Underground,
Eric Copeland,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Kerrie Biddell,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Nirvana,
The Trojans,
Gang of Four,
This Heat,
The Slackers,
Cluster,
Barclay James Harvest,
Soft Cell,
Ultra Naté,
The Gun Club,
Big Daddy Kane,
Yellowson,
EPMD,
Cybotron,
Urselle,
Soulsonic Force,
Wings,
Sarah Menescal,
The Gap Band,
Cameo,
Thompson Twins,
Mark Hollis,
Gregory Isaacs,
Radiohead,
Swell Maps,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.