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 Sao Paulo.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and London.
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 synthesizer 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 Livin' Joy to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Ludus. All the underground hits.
All June of 44 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T.S.O.L. record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Strawberry Alarm Clock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zapp,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
Archie Shepp,
Freddie Wadling,
Grandmaster Flash,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Don Cherry,
Sun Ra,
Malaria!,
Index,
Urselle,
The Walker Brothers,
Henry Cow,
Minnie Riperton,
The Fall,
Masters at Work,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Swell Maps,
Minor Threat,
Eve St. Jones,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Bill Near,
The Smoke,
Little Man,
Pharoah Sanders,
X-102,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Black Sheep,
Soft Cell,
Amazonics,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Chrome,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Music Machine,
Judy Mowatt,
Bobby Womack,
The Fire Engines,
Tommy Roe,
Sound Behaviour,
Wings,
Leonard Cohen,
Brass Construction,
Suburban Knight,
Boredoms,
The Sound,
Hashim,
Agent Orange,
Make Up,
Matthew Halsall,
One Last Wish,
Rakim,
Das Ding,
Sight & Sound,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Cure,
Bobby Sherman,
The Last Poets,
Sarah Menescal,
Average White Band,
Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants.
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.