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 Palau and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and New York.
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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Unwound to the funk 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 Minutemen. All the underground hits.
All The Electric Prunes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brick 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 a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Eddi Front,
Porter Ricks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sällskapet,
The Fall,
Surgeon,
In Retrospect,
The Golliwogs,
Simply Red,
Erykah Badu,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Das Ding,
Don Cherry,
X-101,
Nirvana,
Circle Jerks,
Jawbox,
These Immortal Souls,
Grey Daturas,
MDC,
Adolescents,
The Red Krayola,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Last Poets,
The Fugs,
CMW,
DJ Style,
Oblivians,
The Beau Brummels,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Magma,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Joey Negro,
Donald Byrd,
ABC,
Average White Band,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
New Age Steppers,
Trumans Water,
Visage,
Delta 5,
Arthur Verocai,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Rakim,
Terrestrial Tones,
Cal Tjader,
Junior Murvin,
The Busters,
Soul II Soul,
The Five Americans,
Man Eating Sloth,
Albert Ayler,
Moby Grape,
The Slits,
Amon Düül II,
Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers, Roy Ayers.
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.