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 Uganda and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 güiro 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 The Gap Band to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Von Mondo. All the underground hits.
All Lucky Dragons tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sun Ra Arkestra record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 an organ and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a U.S. Maple record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Buckinghams,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Knickerbockers,
Thompson Twins,
Can,
The Skatalites,
Gastr Del Sol,
Basic Channel,
Robert Görl,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
the Slits,
Leonard Cohen,
Todd Terry,
Sun City Girls,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Harmonia,
Ohio Players,
B.T. Express,
Man Eating Sloth,
Adolescents,
Brick,
Hot Snakes,
Bobby Womack,
The Fugs,
The Monks,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Clear Light,
Brass Construction,
The Busters,
Terrestrial Tones,
Archie Shepp,
Siglo XX,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Cecil Taylor,
EPMD,
The Remains,
Pharoah Sanders,
Nico,
The Stooges,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Techniques,
Kool Moe Dee,
Animal Collective,
Lungfish,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lindisfarne,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Saints,
Lucky Dragons,
Arcadia,
AZ,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Piero Umiliani,
Blossom Toes,
Eli Mardock,
Livin' Joy,
Qualms, Qualms, Qualms, Qualms.
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.