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 Equatorial Guinea and from Cairo.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 chamberlin 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 Oneida to the funk 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 Eric Dolphy. All the underground hits.
All Wire tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Radio Birdman record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 clarinet and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lungfish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Smiths,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Circle Jerks,
Make Up,
FM Einheit,
Joyce Sims,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Piero Umiliani,
The Slackers,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Kaleidoscope,
the Human League,
Siglo XX,
Brass Construction,
Public Image Ltd.,
Bobby Womack,
Crash Course in Science,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Neon Judgement,
Sound Behaviour,
Cal Tjader,
The Velvet Underground,
Dorothy Ashby,
Skarface,
X-101,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Last Poets,
Hashim,
Moby Grape,
Man Parrish,
Dark Day,
Josef K,
Byron Stingily,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Schoolly D,
Tres Demented,
Gang Starr,
Masters at Work,
Bobby Hutcherson,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Fluxion,
Cheater Slicks,
David Axelrod,
Flash Fearless,
Derrick May,
Erykah Badu,
Ten City,
Radio Birdman,
Audionom,
The Dave Clark Five,
Gang Green,
The Mummies,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cluster,
Trumans Water,
Slave,
Panda Bear,
The Doors,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.