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 Mali and from Bremen.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 UT to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Black Moon. All the underground hits.
All Beasts of Bourbon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Big Daddy Kane 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lebanon Hanover,
The Sisters of Mercy,
the Normal,
the Slits,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Nirvana,
Alphaville,
Eric B and Rakim,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Shadows of Knight,
Average White Band,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Dark Day,
Sister Nancy,
Erykah Badu,
Stiv Bators,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Kaleidoscope,
The Seeds,
Graham Central Station,
Boredoms,
Franke,
Khruangbin,
Colin Newman,
Maleditus Sound,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Talk Talk,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Faust,
MC5,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Dennis Brown,
The Standells,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Gang Gang Dance,
Unwound,
The Velvet Underground,
Crime,
Q and Not U,
The Gun Club,
Amon Düül II,
The Black Dice,
The Dirtbombs,
Pharoah Sanders,
Shuggie Otis,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Skriet,
Hasil Adkins,
Massinfluence,
Banda Bassotti,
The Music Machine,
Vladislav Delay,
Con Funk Shun,
Silicon Teens,
The Dead C,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Porter Ricks,
Tears for Fears,
Scion,
The New Christs,
Don Cherry,
Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide.
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.