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 Mongolia and from Accra.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Salvador.
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 rhodes 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 Massinfluence to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Gastr Del Sol. All the underground hits.
All Ponytail tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agent Orange record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pantaleimon,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Smoke,
Urselle,
B.T. Express,
Erykah Badu,
FM Einheit,
Underground Resistance,
Stiv Bators,
Rakim,
Boogie Down Productions,
John Holt,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
the Germs,
Alice Coltrane,
Sonic Youth,
The Slits,
Pagans,
Arab on Radar,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Count Five,
Eurythmics,
Marvin Gaye,
Isaac Hayes,
The Gap Band,
Wasted Youth,
Intrusion,
Jimmy McGriff,
Moby Grape,
Barrington Levy,
Von Mondo,
Japan,
Black Moon,
The Victims,
Unwound,
Inner City,
Throbbing Gristle,
Suburban Knight,
Loose Ends,
Eddi Front,
the Bar-Kays,
T.S.O.L.,
Ronnie Foster,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Silicon Teens,
Royal Trux,
Davy DMX,
Echospace,
Dawn Penn,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Lakeside,
Jerry's Kids,
R.M.O.,
The Blackbyrds,
The Black Dice,
The Residents,
Ornette Coleman,
The Evens,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.