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 Kyrgyzstan and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Hong Kong.
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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Drexciya to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Junior Murvin 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 crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Skaos record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Siglo XX,
Shuggie Otis,
James White and The Blacks,
Glambeats Corp.,
Heaven 17,
Alice Coltrane,
Black Bananas,
David Axelrod,
Yaz,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Rufus Thomas,
Agitation Free,
X-Ray Spex,
The Barracudas,
Silicon Teens,
The Offenders,
The Doobie Brothers,
Slave,
Unwound,
The Angels of Light,
Jacques Brel,
Swans,
Stiv Bators,
Warsaw,
Curtis Mayfield,
Kurtis Blow,
Public Image Ltd.,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Scott Walker,
Q and Not U,
Mantronix,
The Move,
10cc,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
T.S.O.L.,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
John Coltrane,
the Fania All-Stars,
Surgeon,
Basic Channel,
Wings,
June Days,
Erasure,
The Evens,
Scrapy,
Outsiders,
Essential Logic,
Marmalade,
Avey Tare,
Kas Product,
Bob Dylan,
Joe Finger,
Dual Sessions,
Ronan,
This Heat,
Subhumans,
Hoover,
The Knickerbockers,
Underground Resistance,
Ornette Coleman,
Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal.
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.