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 Grenada and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 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 Swell Maps to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Panda Bear. All the underground hits.
All the Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Boz Scaggs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aswad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Residents,
The Beau Brummels,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Technova,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Alison Limerick,
Livin' Joy,
F. McDonald,
Max Romeo,
Pussy Galore,
Mandrill,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Camouflage,
China Crisis,
Cybotron,
Saccharine Trust,
June of 44,
Warren Ellis,
Television,
Scrapy,
Basic Channel,
Jawbox,
The Smiths,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Glambeats Corp.,
Monks,
Johnny Osbourne,
R.M.O.,
10cc,
The Neon Judgement,
Scion,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Skatalites,
Stockholm Monsters,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
James White and The Blacks,
D'Angelo,
Crooked Eye,
Bush Tetras,
Derrick Morgan,
Ponytail,
Model 500,
Peter & Gordon,
PIL,
Groovy Waters,
This Heat,
Cheater Slicks,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Nick Fraelich,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Hashim,
Half Japanese,
Accadde A,
Eddi Front,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Bizarre Inc.,
Marshall Jefferson,
Joe Smooth,
Scott Walker,
Marine Girls,
the Swans,
the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays, the Bar-Kays.
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.