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 Fiji and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Copenhagen.
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 Michael McDonald 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 Black Sheep to the disco 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 The Vogues. All the underground hits.
All Drexciya tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Urselle record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Wolf Eyes,
MC5,
Rufus Thomas,
Avey Tare,
The Dirtbombs,
Soulsonic Force,
FM Einheit,
Sister Nancy,
Janne Schatter,
Anthony Braxton,
Robert Hood,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
CMW,
Warsaw,
Sonny Sharrock,
Youth Brigade,
Tres Demented,
Matthew Bourne,
The Star Department,
The Offenders,
Wire,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Happenings,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Quantec,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Donald Byrd,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sun Ra,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Walker Brothers,
Brand Nubian,
Eurythmics,
Nirvana,
Average White Band,
Patti Smith,
Altered Images,
Kurtis Blow,
Henry Cow,
The Grass Roots,
Tim Buckley,
Brass Construction,
Dual Sessions,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Magazine,
OOIOO,
Infiniti,
Parry Music,
Heaven 17,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
In Retrospect,
The Music Machine,
Grandmaster Flash,
Charles Mingus,
Camouflage,
Gong,
John Holt,
Pantytec,
The Monks,
the Slits,
Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord, Deepchord.
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.