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 Egypt and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to the techno 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 Sexual Harrassment. All the underground hits.
All Cluster tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers Ubiquity 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Traffic Nightmare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kenny Larkin,
Maleditus Sound,
Duran Duran,
Bush Tetras,
The Five Americans,
Sandy B,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Nirvana,
Drive Like Jehu,
Delta 5,
Funkadelic,
The Durutti Column,
Moby Grape,
Hoover,
Metal Thangz,
Barrington Levy,
Magazine,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
June of 44,
D'Angelo,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Curtis Mayfield,
Idris Muhammad,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Eli Mardock,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Scrapy,
Connie Case,
Chris & Cosey,
Erasure,
Gong,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Gang Gang Dance,
Harpers Bizarre,
Agitation Free,
The Blues Magoos,
the Slits,
Lindisfarne,
Amon Düül II,
Cal Tjader,
In Retrospect,
Depeche Mode,
David McCallum,
Matthew Halsall,
Panda Bear,
Sällskapet,
ABC,
The Fire Engines,
the Human League,
Blancmange,
Dark Day,
The Flesh Eaters,
Aaron Thompson,
The Music Machine,
The Associates,
Cheater Slicks,
The Sonics,
Robert Görl,
Soft Machine,
John Holt,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.