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 Peru and from Mumbai.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 Nile Rodgers 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 Essential Logic to the punk 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 Sun Ra. All the underground hits.
All Radiohead tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fall record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 mellotron and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Motorama record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Derrick Morgan,
Popol Vuh,
Nils Olav,
The Doobie Brothers,
Cal Tjader,
David McCallum,
The Fire Engines,
The Slackers,
Sister Nancy,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Basic Channel,
Parry Music,
Jacques Brel,
Chris & Cosey,
The Neon Judgement,
Idris Muhammad,
Roxette,
Carl Craig,
Rosa Yemen,
Bill Wells,
The Last Poets,
Echospace,
John Coltrane,
Public Enemy,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Swell Maps,
Reuben Wilson,
Nation of Ulysses,
Andrew Hill,
the Fania All-Stars,
Al Stewart,
Jawbox,
The Alarm Clocks,
Bobby Womack,
Aloha Tigers,
Sonny Sharrock,
Sexual Harrassment,
Stereo Dub,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Joyce Sims,
The Tremeloes,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Joe Smooth,
Wally Richardson,
Tim Buckley,
The Shadows of Knight,
Bush Tetras,
Pole,
Pulsallama,
Flamin' Groovies,
La Düsseldorf,
This Heat,
The Leaves,
Altered Images,
Iggy Pop,
The Monks,
Q and Not U,
the Human League,
Ronnie Foster,
Suburban Knight,
Traffic Nightmare,
Johnny Clarke,
The Divine Comedy,
Eurythmics, Eurythmics, Eurythmics, Eurythmics.
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.