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 Turkey and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Blossom Toes to the disco kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Organ. All the underground hits.
All Yaz tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Busters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pretty Things record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Popol Vuh,
Dawn Penn,
The Music Machine,
Bad Manners,
Joe Smooth,
The Knickerbockers,
Andrew Hill,
Public Enemy,
Grandmaster Flash,
Derrick Morgan,
Laurel Aitken,
Negative Approach,
Sandy B,
Scratch Acid,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Hasil Adkins,
the Fania All-Stars,
Shoche,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Rites of Spring,
Pantaleimon,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Liliput,
Tears for Fears,
The Misunderstood,
Sound Behaviour,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Mandrill,
Kas Product,
Lightning Bolt,
F. McDonald,
Donny Hathaway,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Cal Tjader,
The Gun Club,
The New Christs,
The Electric Prunes,
Arthur Verocai,
In Retrospect,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Fugazi,
K-Klass,
Neu!,
the Association,
Goldenarms,
Eve St. Jones,
Black Pus,
Skarface,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Associates,
Siglo XX,
Pylon,
Surgeon,
Chrome,
H. Thieme,
Shuggie Otis,
Amazonics,
Pagans,
Peter & Gordon,
Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis.
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.