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 Burkina and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 marimba 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the jazz 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 Ultramagnetic MC's. All the underground hits.
All Howard Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cramps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
New Age Steppers,
cv313,
The Misunderstood,
Wolf Eyes,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Hoover,
A Flock of Seagulls,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Wake,
Procol Harum,
Spoonie Gee,
Interpol,
The Angels of Light,
Dave Gahan,
Avey Tare,
Sex Pistols,
Infiniti,
Amazonics,
Sound Behaviour,
Dark Day,
Bob Dylan,
Yaz,
Icehouse,
Sun Ra,
Mr. Review,
Scott Walker,
Lower 48,
Masters at Work,
John Cale,
The Gories,
Duran Duran,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
EPMD,
Brothers Johnson,
Aswad,
Unwound,
Susan Cadogan,
Lindisfarne,
Y Pants,
Connie Case,
Jandek,
U.S. Maple,
Monks,
Shuggie Otis,
Barry Ungar,
Gastr Del Sol,
Crash Course in Science,
Rapeman,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Don Cherry,
The Barracudas,
Silicon Teens,
The Skatalites,
Marc Almond,
Yusef Lateef,
Parry Music,
Warsaw,
Excepter,
Pole,
Sällskapet, Sällskapet, Sällskapet, Sällskapet.
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.