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 Mexico and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 sitar 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 Blake Baxter to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Yaz. All the underground hits.
All Jeru the Damaja tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Neil Young & Crazy Horse record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 theremin and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gang Starr record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Groovy Waters,
Eve St. Jones,
The Flesh Eaters,
Kas Product,
Circle Jerks,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Cure,
Tom Boy,
The Gun Club,
Lee Hazlewood,
Lalo Schifrin,
Morten Harket,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Blackbyrds,
Wire,
Outsiders,
Ituana,
The Offenders,
Gabor Szabo,
Scrapy,
Bang On A Can,
Alphaville,
the Swans,
Adolescents,
Anakelly,
Sight & Sound,
Johnny Clarke,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Peter and Kerry,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Electric Prunes,
Brass Construction,
The Smiths,
Fatback Band,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Unwound,
Average White Band,
The Move,
Heaven 17,
kango's stein massive,
Don Cherry,
Juan Atkins,
Bobby Sherman,
Charles Mingus,
Frankie Knuckles,
Ice-T,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Pere Ubu,
Deadbeat,
Slick Rick,
Ossler,
The Dave Clark Five,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Gladiators,
The Residents,
Metal Thangz,
Roxette,
Negative Approach,
Delta 5,
Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti.
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.