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 Denmark and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Accra.
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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Barrington Levy to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Nico. All the underground hits.
All In Retrospect tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gang Starr,
Fear,
The Neon Judgement,
The Five Americans,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Gang of Four,
David Bowie,
La Düsseldorf,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Unwound,
The Knickerbockers,
B.T. Express,
Flash Fearless,
Lightning Bolt,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
the Germs,
The Kinks,
Nas,
London Community Gospel Choir,
ABBA,
The Litter,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Searchers,
the Association,
The Index,
Television Personalities,
K-Klass,
Suicide,
Supertramp,
Sister Nancy,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lee Hazlewood,
Black Bananas,
Chris & Cosey,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Smog,
Ultimate Spinach,
Aural Exciters,
ABC,
The Fugs,
Shoche,
The Monochrome Set,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The United States of America,
Black Moon,
UT,
Archie Shepp,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Grandmaster Flash,
Mars,
Quadrant,
The Smiths,
Stiv Bators,
Little Man,
Easy Going,
D'Angelo,
Joensuu 1685,
Essential Logic,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.