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 Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 David Bowie 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 Mo-Dettes to the jazz 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 Audionom. All the underground hits.
All Ajijia Myrayebe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smoke record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zero Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Inner City,
Man Eating Sloth,
Blossom Toes,
Marine Girls,
X-Ray Spex,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Gong,
Jerry's Kids,
F. McDonald,
UT,
Clear Light,
T.S.O.L.,
Laurel Aitken,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
48th St. Collective,
Marmalade,
The Martian,
Dave Gahan,
Davy DMX,
The Human League,
Kerrie Biddell,
Theoretical Girls,
Flash Fearless,
Silicon Teens,
Sound Behaviour,
The Stooges,
ABBA,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Blackbyrds,
Nik Kershaw,
Minutemen,
Wings,
The Invisible,
Dorothy Ashby,
Gichy Dan,
Con Funk Shun,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Flipper,
Duran Duran,
Crime,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
In Retrospect,
Black Pus,
Subhumans,
Camouflage,
The Blues Magoos,
Michelle Simonal,
the Bar-Kays,
The Black Dice,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Monochrome Set,
Soft Machine,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Q65,
Electric Prunes,
Bob Dylan,
Roger Hodgson,
Schoolly D,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Procol Harum,
The Fuzztones, The Fuzztones, The Fuzztones, The Fuzztones.
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.