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 Sierra Leone and from Johannesburg.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 Lou Reed 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 Rakim to the grime 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlback tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minor Threat 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Vogues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Susan Cadogan,
Pagans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Pantytec,
Desert Stars,
Silicon Teens,
Tim Buckley,
Warsaw,
Minutemen,
Brand Nubian,
Sam Rivers,
Boogie Down Productions,
Crooked Eye,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Judy Mowatt,
The Techniques,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Neu!,
Amazonics,
Altered Images,
Charles Mingus,
Moby Grape,
The Happenings,
Flipper,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Lalo Schifrin,
Cluster,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Fat Boys,
Hasil Adkins,
Kurtis Blow,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Victims,
Loose Ends,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Joey Negro,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Bootsy Collins,
Sällskapet,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Blake Baxter,
R.M.O.,
MC5,
Reuben Wilson,
The Human League,
The Gories,
Flamin' Groovies,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Harry Pussy,
The Black Dice,
Aaron Thompson,
Isaac Hayes,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Cowsills,
Sly & The Family Stone,
U.S. Maple,
Main Source,
The Golliwogs,
Aural Exciters,
Underground Resistance,
The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds.
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.