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 Iraq and from Bremen.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Ultra Naté to the techno 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 Barbara Tucker. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ronnie Foster 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zero Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gregory Isaacs,
Stockholm Monsters,
Cheater Slicks,
Quando Quango,
E-Dancer,
FM Einheit,
Popol Vuh,
Bob Dylan,
The Leaves,
The Kinks,
Skaos,
Gastr Del Sol,
Bobby Womack,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
X-102,
The Motions,
The Names,
The Dave Clark Five,
Robert Wyatt,
The Index,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
AZ,
The Real Kids,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jimmy McGriff,
Pylon,
The Evens,
the Bar-Kays,
Fad Gadget,
Idris Muhammad,
New Age Steppers,
New York Dolls,
The Monochrome Set,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
LL Cool J,
Gong,
The Mummies,
the Sonics,
Radiopuhelimet,
Quadrant,
48th St. Collective,
Pussy Galore,
Yaz,
Albert Ayler,
X-101,
David Axelrod,
Nirvana,
Laurel Aitken,
The Associates,
Sugar Minott,
The Vogues,
Barry Ungar,
The Shadows of Knight,
T.S.O.L.,
Pierre Henry,
Judy Mowatt,
David Bowie,
Barbara Tucker,
The Fugs,
Second Layer,
Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters, Aural Exciters.
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.