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 Uganda and from Cairo.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Woodstock.
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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Flash Fearless to the grunge 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 Symarip. All the underground hits.
All Absolute Body Control tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Starr record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Janne Schatter,
The Fugs,
Icehouse,
The Gun Club,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The United States of America,
A Certain Ratio,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
UT,
Tom Boy,
Groovy Waters,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Supertramp,
Rekid,
The Toasters,
Althea and Donna,
The Fortunes,
Whodini,
Jeff Mills,
Bronski Beat,
Lower 48,
Idris Muhammad,
Gerry Rafferty,
Piero Umiliani,
Lightning Bolt,
Livin' Joy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
This Heat,
Mark Hollis,
the Slits,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Vogues,
Electric Prunes,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Selecter,
Zapp,
The Invisible,
Tropical Tobacco,
Graham Central Station,
Charles Mingus,
Soft Machine,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ponytail,
Minutemen,
Reagan Youth,
Gang of Four,
Soft Cell,
Joe Smooth,
The Associates,
Marine Girls,
Sight & Sound,
Spoonie Gee,
Ken Boothe,
The Dead C,
Big Daddy Kane,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gang Starr,
Symarip, Symarip, Symarip, Symarip.
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.