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 Vanuatu and from London.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 linndrum 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 Don Cherry to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Cecil Taylor. All the underground hits.
All Desert Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Divine Comedy,
Susan Cadogan,
MDC,
Carl Craig,
Suicide,
Theoretical Girls,
Magma,
The Trojans,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Eden Ahbez,
Idris Muhammad,
Eddi Front,
Skarface,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Minutemen,
Crooked Eye,
China Crisis,
Flash Fearless,
Excepter,
John Coltrane,
Quando Quango,
Dark Day,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Knickerbockers,
Patti Smith,
Traffic Nightmare,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Mo-Dettes,
Bobby Womack,
Terrestrial Tones,
Joyce Sims,
Yusef Lateef,
The Skatalites,
The Detroit Cobras,
Josef K,
Black Pus,
Jerry's Kids,
John Lydon,
Nick Fraelich,
Section 25,
Depeche Mode,
Junior Murvin,
This Heat,
Leonard Cohen,
Porter Ricks,
Lucky Dragons,
The Fire Engines,
Ponytail,
48th St. Collective,
Scratch Acid,
Mad Mike,
The Count Five,
Con Funk Shun,
Heaven 17,
Rakim,
Fela Kuti,
Neu!,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Kinks,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Standells,
T.S.O.L.,
Gang Starr, Gang Starr, Gang Starr, Gang Starr.
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.