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 Venezuela and from Delhi.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Bluetip to the grunge 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 Sun Ra Arkestra. All the underground hits.
All The Beau Brummels tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Danielle Patucci 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Human League,
Joe Smooth,
Newcleus,
La Düsseldorf,
Marvin Gaye,
The Divine Comedy,
The Real Kids,
Arcadia,
Zapp,
Delta 5,
Average White Band,
The Fall,
Dead Boys,
Little Man,
Mission of Burma,
Tomorrow,
Isaac Hayes,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Blackbyrds,
Ronnie Foster,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Circle Jerks,
Organ,
the Soft Cell,
Alison Limerick,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Gang Starr,
The Music Machine,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Slits,
Don Cherry,
Judy Mowatt,
Skaos,
Leonard Cohen,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
the Slits,
The Fuzztones,
The Martian,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Malaria!,
The Move,
Fat Boys,
the Fania All-Stars,
Mark Hollis,
Throbbing Gristle,
PIL,
Grandmaster Flash,
10cc,
Sun City Girls,
Bad Manners,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Victims,
The Pretty Things,
E-Dancer,
The Smoke,
Boz Scaggs,
New York Dolls,
Tim Buckley,
Curtis Mayfield,
Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid, Scratch Acid.
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.