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 Paraguay and from Jakarta.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Lyon.
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 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 Joe Smooth to the grime 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 Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Country Teasers 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 sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dawn Penn,
The Black Dice,
The Names,
Severed Heads,
Gong,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Reuben Wilson,
The J.B.'s,
The Beau Brummels,
Siglo XX,
The Zeros,
Moebius,
Stockholm Monsters,
Wire,
Lee Hazlewood,
Absolute Body Control,
Tres Demented,
Das Ding,
Danielle Patucci,
Sparks,
Sound Behaviour,
Pussy Galore,
New York Dolls,
Bad Manners,
Traffic Nightmare,
Technova,
Grauzone,
Soulsonic Force,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Fugazi,
Procol Harum,
Jerry's Kids,
David McCallum,
Don Cherry,
James White and The Blacks,
Crash Course in Science,
Colin Newman,
The Wake,
The Music Machine,
Rekid,
Pole,
Brothers Johnson,
Ken Boothe,
Black Sheep,
a-ha,
Organ,
Average White Band,
Barrington Levy,
Vainqueur,
Yusef Lateef,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
John Lydon,
Flipper,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Radiopuhelimet,
Cecil Taylor,
Pierre Henry,
Yazoo,
Ronnie Foster,
Nick Fraelich,
Sixth Finger,
The New Christs, The New Christs, The New Christs, The New Christs.
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.