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 Tonga and from London.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 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 Terrestrial Tones to the funk 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 The Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Kerri Chandler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every B.T. Express record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Trojans,
Gerry Rafferty,
Black Pus,
Can,
Ice-T,
Wire,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Ituana,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Goldenarms,
Tommy Roe,
The Move,
The Tremeloes,
the Normal,
Mars,
Cecil Taylor,
Yellowson,
Ossler,
Quantec,
Lou Reed,
Boz Scaggs,
Flipper,
Supertramp,
Patti Smith,
Banda Bassotti,
The Black Dice,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Blackbyrds,
Brand Nubian,
Arab on Radar,
Soft Machine,
Babytalk,
The Selecter,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Yaz,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Essential Logic,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
PIL,
Franke,
Pagans,
Hot Snakes,
Gang Starr,
Yazoo,
Pet Shop Boys,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Grauzone,
Radio Birdman,
Wasted Youth,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Andrew Hill,
Urselle,
The American Breed,
Cymande,
Grandmaster Flash,
Ken Boothe,
Animal Collective,
Rapeman,
Barbara Tucker,
Pere Ubu,
The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band.
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.