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 and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Durutti Column 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 Slave. All the underground hits.
All The Cosmic Jokers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Gang Dance record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grauzone,
The Last Poets,
This Heat,
Soul Sonic Force,
Lalann,
Marshall Jefferson,
Flash Fearless,
Kenny Larkin,
The Barracudas,
Pantaleimon,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Barrington Levy,
MC5,
Warsaw,
FM Einheit,
Eric Dolphy,
Johnny Clarke,
The Velvet Underground,
Ken Boothe,
Leonard Cohen,
Cheater Slicks,
Index,
Pierre Henry,
Sonny Sharrock,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Hasil Adkins,
The Martian,
D'Angelo,
Yellowson,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Hardrive,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Barbara Tucker,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Bobby Sherman,
Nation of Ulysses,
Buzzcocks,
Danielle Patucci,
10cc,
The Vogues,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Skatalites,
Crime,
A Certain Ratio,
Faust,
Harpers Bizarre,
the Germs,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Radiohead,
the Slits,
Massinfluence,
the Swans,
Livin' Joy,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Smoke,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Henry Cow,
Scion,
the Bar-Kays,
Deadbeat,
David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod.
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.