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 Saudi Arabia and from Glasgow.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Vladislav Delay to the grime 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 Fluxion. All the underground hits.
All Faraquet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harry Pussy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neil Young record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun City Girls,
Cameo,
Mantronix,
Boredoms,
Rakim,
Sexual Harrassment,
Reuben Wilson,
Lebanon Hanover,
8 Eyed Spy,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Siglo XX,
L. Decosne,
Tears for Fears,
Television,
The Durutti Column,
Alice Coltrane,
Dual Sessions,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Black Sheep,
Dennis Brown,
Avey Tare,
Andrew Hill,
Judy Mowatt,
Roxette,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Tomorrow,
Intrusion,
Make Up,
Sixth Finger,
The Five Americans,
Dead Boys,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Sound,
Ohio Players,
The Black Dice,
Outsiders,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Dorothy Ashby,
Fugazi,
Yusef Lateef,
Derrick May,
Scan 7,
Moebius,
Popol Vuh,
Warren Ellis,
Blancmange,
Silicon Teens,
Kenny Larkin,
The Knickerbockers,
Slick Rick,
Kaleidoscope,
Boz Scaggs,
JFA,
The United States of America,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Cramps,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Harmonia,
Unrelated Segments,
Gang Starr,
Cymande,
Archie Shepp,
FM Einheit,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.