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 Samoa and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 The Motions to the disco 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 Gregory Isaacs. All the underground hits.
All Gabor Szabo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ajijia Myrayebe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gun Club record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar 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 Count Five,
Niagra,
Bluetip,
Los Fastidios,
Drexciya,
Black Pus,
Brick,
The Sound,
Pharoah Sanders,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Buckinghams,
Todd Terry,
Swans,
EPMD,
PIL,
Bush Tetras,
H. Thieme,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lou Christie,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Man Eating Sloth,
Clear Light,
The Skatalites,
Scan 7,
Cecil Taylor,
Joe Smooth,
Symarip,
Aswad,
Kenny Larkin,
Mo-Dettes,
Iggy Pop,
The Dead C,
Basic Channel,
Bill Near,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Smiths,
Von Mondo,
Grauzone,
The Cramps,
Rakim,
Stockholm Monsters,
Desert Stars,
Bang On A Can,
Roxy Music,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Cowsills,
Audionom,
Wally Richardson,
Arab on Radar,
Glambeats Corp.,
Hoover,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Rotary Connection,
X-Ray Spex,
The Beau Brummels,
Index,
Derrick Morgan,
Pierre Henry,
The Fuzztones,
The Zeros,
Theoretical Girls,
Yaz,
Television,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.