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 Tonga and from Copenhagen.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 David Bowie 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 Durutti Column to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Grey Daturas. All the underground hits.
All Kenny Larkin tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Masters at Work record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Smog,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Bauhaus,
Eric Copeland,
Jandek,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Count Five,
Terrestrial Tones,
Susan Cadogan,
Procol Harum,
June Days,
Ituana,
Guru Guru,
E-Dancer,
Eyeless In Gaza,
the Human League,
Rites of Spring,
ABC,
Pierre Henry,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rufus Thomas,
Das Ding,
Maurizio,
Brand Nubian,
Stockholm Monsters,
Arab on Radar,
Ten City,
Adolescents,
Warsaw,
Albert Ayler,
The Doobie Brothers,
Howard Jones,
The Fire Engines,
Ossler,
Piero Umiliani,
Neil Young,
Hashim,
The Mummies,
The Toasters,
Groovy Waters,
MDC,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Sight & Sound,
Mantronix,
Sun Ra,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Eli Mardock,
Main Source,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Section 25,
Grey Daturas,
Suicide,
Circle Jerks,
Roy Ayers,
10cc,
Scion,
Hasil Adkins,
L. Decosne,
Judy Mowatt,
Crash Course in Science,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.