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 Zambia and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 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 Eve St. Jones to the funk 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 Unwound. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barbara Tucker 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Leaves record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Supertramp,
Underground Resistance,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Cure,
The Blues Magoos,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Heaven 17,
Dead Boys,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lyres,
Brick,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mantronix,
Dorothy Ashby,
Black Flag,
Tears for Fears,
Kas Product,
AZ,
Reagan Youth,
The Knickerbockers,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Susan Cadogan,
Average White Band,
Rosa Yemen,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Joy Division,
Thompson Twins,
kango's stein massive,
Zapp,
Arcadia,
Duran Duran,
Robert Wyatt,
Johnny Osbourne,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ludus,
Fela Kuti,
Ice-T,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Grass Roots,
Ten City,
Dennis Brown,
Sixth Finger,
Smog,
The Blackbyrds,
Spandau Ballet,
Eve St. Jones,
10cc,
Trumans Water,
Bobby Byrd,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Fortunes,
Letta Mbulu,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Leonard Cohen,
The Raincoats,
Unrelated Segments,
Erykah Badu,
The Fuzztones,
Subhumans, Subhumans, Subhumans, Subhumans.
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.