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 Mozambique and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 guitar 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 De La Soul & Jungle Brothers to the disco 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 Bobby Womack. All the underground hits.
All The Divine Comedy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Hood,
Tommy Roe,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Sonic Youth,
Lightning Bolt,
The Sonics,
Inner City,
8 Eyed Spy,
Gabor Szabo,
Kas Product,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
John Foxx,
Scrapy,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Visage,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Grandmaster Flash,
Skarface,
Second Layer,
Ludus,
Bootsy Collins,
Pole,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Excepter,
Donny Hathaway,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Roxette,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
DJ Style,
Robert Wyatt,
Faust,
June of 44,
Wasted Youth,
Cluster,
The Litter,
The New Christs,
The Five Americans,
Reagan Youth,
The Dirtbombs,
Brass Construction,
E-Dancer,
Mad Mike,
KRS-One,
Glenn Branca,
Slick Rick,
Marmalade,
The Martian,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Joensuu 1685,
the Fania All-Stars,
Zero Boys,
Aloha Tigers,
Whodini,
Rekid,
Eli Mardock,
Radiohead,
Young Marble Giants,
Gang of Four,
Warsaw,
Carl Craig,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.