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 China and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television 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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 güiro 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 Skaos to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Litter. All the underground hits.
All Severed Heads tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sound,
Marmalade,
Fugazi,
T. Rex,
The Pretty Things,
Arcadia,
Jeff Mills,
Quando Quango,
The Martian,
Radiopuhelimet,
Parry Music,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sugar Minott,
Babytalk,
The Sonics,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Spandau Ballet,
Brothers Johnson,
the Bar-Kays,
The Slackers,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Soft Cell,
Jacob Miller,
Deakin,
The Slits,
Accadde A,
Black Flag,
Harmonia,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Depeche Mode,
Maleditus Sound,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Goldenarms,
DNA,
The Saints,
Man Eating Sloth,
Smog,
Echospace,
Symarip,
One Last Wish,
The Gun Club,
Y Pants,
Big Daddy Kane,
Al Stewart,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Darondo,
Brass Construction,
Aloha Tigers,
Black Sheep,
Supertramp,
Skriet,
The Blues Magoos,
Moss Icon,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Toasters,
Unrelated Segments,
Tres Demented,
Nick Fraelich,
Lou Christie,
Radiohead,
Grey Daturas, Grey Daturas, Grey Daturas, Grey Daturas.
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.