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 Iran and from Paris.
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 Woodstock and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 disco kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Second Layer. All the underground hits.
All Arcadia tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suicide 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sex Pistols record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Trumans Water,
Nik Kershaw,
Agent Orange,
Eden Ahbez,
Cecil Taylor,
48th St. Collective,
The Slackers,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Roger Hodgson,
Isaac Hayes,
Monks,
Neil Young,
Erasure,
Connie Case,
Underground Resistance,
Sandy B,
Fear,
Flamin' Groovies,
MDC,
The Seeds,
Section 25,
Soft Cell,
Unwound,
The Knickerbockers,
CMW,
Dennis Brown,
Harry Pussy,
Main Source,
Monolake,
JFA,
Kool Moe Dee,
Y Pants,
The Last Poets,
The American Breed,
Bobby Womack,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Crispian St. Peters,
Bill Near,
Schoolly D,
Marc Almond,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Golliwogs,
Danielle Patucci,
Piero Umiliani,
Cameo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Qualms,
Carl Craig,
Bootsy Collins,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lou Christie,
Heaven 17,
David Axelrod,
Television,
Marmalade,
Banda Bassotti,
The Fall,
Morten Harket,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lou Reed,
The Moody Blues,
The Index, The Index, The Index, The Index.
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.