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 Guinea-Bissau and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Neil Young to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gap Band. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joensuu 1685 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Circle Jerks,
Maleditus Sound,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Raincoats,
JFA,
The Dead C,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Cale,
Alton Ellis,
Cymande,
The Last Poets,
Harry Pussy,
Black Sheep,
The Modern Lovers,
Y Pants,
Radiohead,
Tom Boy,
The Sound,
Essential Logic,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Joe Smooth,
Quantec,
Aswad,
Schoolly D,
The Fortunes,
Los Fastidios,
Eric Dolphy,
Danielle Patucci,
Roy Ayers,
Nils Olav,
Quadrant,
Procol Harum,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Agitation Free,
Ornette Coleman,
June Days,
Camberwell Now,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Sparks,
Wally Richardson,
Lalo Schifrin,
Idris Muhammad,
The Beau Brummels,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Kurtis Blow,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Marine Girls,
Boredoms,
Saccharine Trust,
Janne Schatter,
Skarface,
Kool Moe Dee,
Bobby Womack,
Amazonics,
The Grass Roots,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Malaria!,
DNA,
Johnny Clarke,
Quando Quango,
The Moody Blues,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Skaos,
Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach.
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.