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 South Sudan and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Moody Blues to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 James White and The Blacks. All the underground hits.
All Hardrive tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions 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 linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gichy Dan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roy Ayers,
Steve Hackett,
Drexciya,
Essential Logic,
Arcadia,
The Dave Clark Five,
Circle Jerks,
Pole,
Pharoah Sanders,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Swans,
Spoonie Gee,
The Blues Magoos,
The Cure,
Barrington Levy,
Crooked Eye,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Selecter,
Nico,
Mission of Burma,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Gun Club,
The Saints,
Brick,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Evens,
A Certain Ratio,
Deadbeat,
Cheater Slicks,
Sällskapet,
Scrapy,
Au Pairs,
10cc,
Juan Atkins,
The Mojo Men,
Technova,
K-Klass,
Traffic Nightmare,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
KRS-One,
Young Marble Giants,
Half Japanese,
The Music Machine,
Jesper Dahlback,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
World's Most,
Rakim,
The Moleskins,
The Velvet Underground,
U.S. Maple,
Curtis Mayfield,
Harmonia,
Stetsasonic,
Anthony Braxton,
Johnny Clarke,
Second Layer,
Lakeside,
Popol Vuh,
Ken Boothe,
Lower 48,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.