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 Haiti and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Flesh Eaters. All the underground hits.
All the Fania All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerri Chandler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a CMW record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fad Gadget,
Fela Kuti,
Gregory Isaacs,
Funkadelic,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Five Americans,
Metal Thangz,
The Mummies,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Charles Mingus,
Surgeon,
Erykah Badu,
The Fall,
Basic Channel,
Electric Prunes,
The Fuzztones,
John Coltrane,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Television,
Skarface,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Jeru the Damaja,
Massinfluence,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Camberwell Now,
Freddie Wadling,
Yellowson,
CMW,
Das Ding,
Erasure,
The Selecter,
Mary Jane Girls,
Magma,
The Durutti Column,
U.S. Maple,
Alphaville,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Girls At Our Best!,
Theoretical Girls,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Soul II Soul,
Deakin,
Mad Mike,
Jerry's Kids,
Excepter,
The Dave Clark Five,
Banda Bassotti,
Mark Hollis,
The Names,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Jesper Dahlback,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Ice-T,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Maurizio,
Derrick May,
Gang Gang Dance,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Dawn Penn,
Arab on Radar,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four.
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.