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 Sri Lanka and from Lagos.
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 Bremen and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 mellotron 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 Skaos to the crunk 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 The Fortunes. All the underground hits.
All Monks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cluster record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
H. Thieme,
Johnny Clarke,
Mark Hollis,
Curtis Mayfield,
Fat Boys,
Babytalk,
The Happenings,
Wasted Youth,
Alice Coltrane,
Intrusion,
Electric Prunes,
Eric B and Rakim,
Archie Shepp,
Ken Boothe,
The Slackers,
Interpol,
FM Einheit,
Crooked Eye,
Mary Jane Girls,
Marine Girls,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Audionom,
The Velvet Underground,
Johnny Osbourne,
Subhumans,
The Misunderstood,
Rhythm & Sound,
Arab on Radar,
Arcadia,
Barclay James Harvest,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Ultravox,
Derrick Morgan,
Youth Brigade,
Bang On A Can,
Sun City Girls,
Joy Division,
The Birthday Party,
Blake Baxter,
Lyres,
Sister Nancy,
Minutemen,
K-Klass,
Nas,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Procol Harum,
Ohio Players,
Carl Craig,
Donny Hathaway,
June Days,
Eli Mardock,
Henry Cow,
Sexual Harrassment,
Technova,
Janne Schatter,
Yaz,
Deakin,
Soul Sonic Force,
Nirvana,
The Toasters,
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.