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 South Sudan and from Manchester.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 marimba 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 Barry Ungar to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bush Tetras. All the underground hits.
All The Happenings tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Shoche 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eden Ahbez record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radio Birdman,
Stereo Dub,
AZ,
The Human League,
Roy Ayers,
8 Eyed Spy,
Derrick Morgan,
Siglo XX,
Black Bananas,
Dark Day,
Tubeway Army,
Crime,
Cybotron,
Public Image Ltd.,
The United States of America,
Mr. Review,
Zapp,
10cc,
the Human League,
The Monks,
Marc Almond,
Sarah Menescal,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Porter Ricks,
Robert Wyatt,
Yusef Lateef,
Brick,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Half Japanese,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Agitation Free,
Brothers Johnson,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Andrew Hill,
The Walker Brothers,
Cymande,
Funkadelic,
This Heat,
Stiv Bators,
Neil Young,
Sight & Sound,
Hoover,
The Barracudas,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Misunderstood,
The Cowsills,
Nick Fraelich,
The Moody Blues,
Lalo Schifrin,
Monolake,
Aaron Thompson,
The Dead C,
Tommy Roe,
The Happenings,
Au Pairs,
PIL,
Reuben Wilson,
Fugazi,
Urselle,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.