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 Fiji and from Bremen.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 K-Klass to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Terry Callier. All the underground hits.
All Soul Sonic Force tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Throbbing Gristle 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tropical Tobacco record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mission of Burma,
Camouflage,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Laurel Aitken,
Jimmy McGriff,
Pere Ubu,
Faust,
Idris Muhammad,
Malaria!,
The Mummies,
Shoche,
DJ Sneak,
Flash Fearless,
Steve Hackett,
Main Source,
Leonard Cohen,
Roger Hodgson,
Sixth Finger,
Average White Band,
The Birthday Party,
Schoolly D,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Banda Bassotti,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
PIL,
Saccharine Trust,
Public Enemy,
Aswad,
H. Thieme,
Moss Icon,
The Buckinghams,
Cheater Slicks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Scrapy,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Funky Four + One,
Organ,
Scott Walker,
Animal Collective,
The Vogues,
Ronnie Foster,
Massinfluence,
Barrington Levy,
Agitation Free,
Panda Bear,
The Fall,
The American Breed,
Shuggie Otis,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Don Cherry,
ABBA,
Tomorrow,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Walker Brothers,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Last Poets,
AZ,
The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines, The Fire Engines.
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.