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 Costa Rica and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 clarinet 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 Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Ajijia Myrayebe. All the underground hits.
All The Blues Magoos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hot Snakes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Cure,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Doors,
Maurizio,
The Last Poets,
Sun City Girls,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Todd Rundgren,
Can,
New Age Steppers,
The Wake,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Jacques Brel,
The Divine Comedy,
Make Up,
Surgeon,
The Skatalites,
Organ,
Tropical Tobacco,
Heaven 17,
The Five Americans,
The Count Five,
Frankie Knuckles,
Scan 7,
The Sound,
Bobby Sherman,
Black Pus,
Urselle,
Alton Ellis,
New Order,
Gong,
Ossler,
Spoonie Gee,
Graham Central Station,
Saccharine Trust,
Ronnie Foster,
Bauhaus,
The Alarm Clocks,
Jeff Lynne,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
John Coltrane,
DNA,
Vainqueur,
Leonard Cohen,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Minny Pops,
Scrapy,
Kenny Larkin,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Second Layer,
the Sonics,
Groovy Waters,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
R.M.O.,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Wally Richardson,
Hot Snakes,
Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre.
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.