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 Cameroon and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 güiro 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 Rhythm & Sound to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Robert Wyatt. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Clarke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Laurel Aitken record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 theremin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Saccharine Trust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Scion,
Soul II Soul,
Newcleus,
Fela Kuti,
The Slits,
Radiopuhelimet,
Crash Course in Science,
Black Bananas,
R.M.O.,
The Gories,
the Bar-Kays,
Man Eating Sloth,
Warren Ellis,
Gabor Szabo,
Pantaleimon,
The Mummies,
Radiohead,
The Black Dice,
T.S.O.L.,
Masters at Work,
EPMD,
Erasure,
Barclay James Harvest,
Yusef Lateef,
Crime,
Neu!,
Black Moon,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Tom Boy,
Public Enemy,
Eurythmics,
Bang On A Can,
Animal Collective,
Pussy Galore,
Chrome,
Parry Music,
Alice Coltrane,
Blake Baxter,
Motorama,
Suburban Knight,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Fall,
Sixth Finger,
Gerry Rafferty,
Faust,
Can,
The Leaves,
Ralphi Rosario,
Nirvana,
F. McDonald,
Mandrill,
The Sonics,
The Dead C,
David Axelrod,
a-ha,
The Dave Clark Five,
the Slits,
Altered Images,
Kenny Larkin,
Ludus,
Kevin Saunderson,
Isaac Hayes,
Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia, Arcadia.
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.