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 Barbados and from Calgary.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 theremin 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 Scrapy to the grime 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 The Durutti Column. All the underground hits.
All Ken Boothe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soft Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tropical Tobacco,
Section 25,
New Age Steppers,
Pere Ubu,
Sixth Finger,
Drive Like Jehu,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Siglo XX,
Crispian St. Peters,
Nik Kershaw,
Alice Coltrane,
Nick Fraelich,
B.T. Express,
Letta Mbulu,
Schoolly D,
The Busters,
Bush Tetras,
Shoche,
UT,
Soul Sonic Force,
Carl Craig,
Ossler,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Erykah Badu,
Rosa Yemen,
Basic Channel,
Eric Dolphy,
kango's stein massive,
Brothers Johnson,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Pantaleimon,
Absolute Body Control,
Oneida,
The Moody Blues,
Mantronix,
The Slits,
Glenn Branca,
Country Teasers,
Goldenarms,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Alarm Clocks,
Organ,
Pussy Galore,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gang Starr,
the Normal,
Ornette Coleman,
Crash Course in Science,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Maleditus Sound,
The Neon Judgement,
Desert Stars,
In Retrospect,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
This Heat,
Interpol,
Minny Pops,
Gang Green,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Raincoats,
Neu!,
Man Eating Sloth,
a-ha,
David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod.
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.