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 Germany and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 Donald Fagen 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 The Monochrome Set to the rock 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 Rosa Yemen. All the underground hits.
All Black Bananas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Toni Rubio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Quadrant,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Fall,
Radiohead,
Siglo XX,
The Flesh Eaters,
Brand Nubian,
Bill Wells,
Ronan,
the Slits,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Golliwogs,
Erykah Badu,
The Fortunes,
Cybotron,
The Monochrome Set,
Average White Band,
Crash Course in Science,
The Smoke,
Unrelated Segments,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Hashim,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Marcia Griffiths,
Excepter,
Porter Ricks,
Television,
Judy Mowatt,
Mr. Review,
Altered Images,
Dual Sessions,
Amazonics,
Graham Central Station,
Pet Shop Boys,
UT,
Scion,
Tropical Tobacco,
Boz Scaggs,
Cluster,
Swell Maps,
Crime,
Roxy Music,
Anakelly,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Eurythmics,
Nation of Ulysses,
Public Enemy,
Robert Görl,
Angry Samoans,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Mojo Men,
Patti Smith,
Pulsallama,
Moss Icon,
Boredoms,
David McCallum,
Marvin Gaye,
Dawn Penn,
Shuggie Otis,
Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood.
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.