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 Guinea-Bissau and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 LL Cool J 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 The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. All the underground hits.
All Inner City tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ajijia Myrayebe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pantytec,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Big Daddy Kane,
Throbbing Gristle,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Faust,
Public Enemy,
Aaron Thompson,
Jandek,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Gerry Rafferty,
Oneida,
Roy Ayers,
Whodini,
Metal Thangz,
The Gap Band,
Ultimate Spinach,
Soft Machine,
Quando Quango,
Scan 7,
LL Cool J,
James White and The Blacks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Raincoats,
Flamin' Groovies,
Eden Ahbez,
Sparks,
Tears for Fears,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Gregory Isaacs,
Infiniti,
Talk Talk,
The Moody Blues,
Panda Bear,
Grey Daturas,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Nation of Ulysses,
Oblivians,
The Fire Engines,
Stetsasonic,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
JFA,
Bill Wells,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Althea and Donna,
June of 44,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Mission of Burma,
Rosa Yemen,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Minny Pops,
La Düsseldorf,
Anakelly,
The Standells,
Arcadia,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Cameo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Au Pairs,
Avey Tare,
The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers, The Walker Brothers.
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.