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 Nicaragua and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1967 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 güiro 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 Pantytec to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Wolf Eyes. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Charles Mingus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Donny Hathaway record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
June Days,
Pet Shop Boys,
Idris Muhammad,
Minny Pops,
Derrick May,
Gang Green,
Mission of Burma,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Lakeside,
Junior Murvin,
Marine Girls,
Robert Görl,
Icehouse,
Grey Daturas,
Hoover,
The Real Kids,
Technova,
Wire,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sällskapet,
Frankie Knuckles,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The J.B.'s,
F. McDonald,
Tropical Tobacco,
Vainqueur,
Jeru the Damaja,
Aswad,
Stetsasonic,
X-Ray Spex,
Traffic Nightmare,
Kerri Chandler,
Harry Pussy,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Chrome,
Glambeats Corp.,
Dark Day,
Johnny Clarke,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Pere Ubu,
Man Parrish,
Letta Mbulu,
Television Personalities,
Camouflage,
Banda Bassotti,
Japan,
MC5,
The Toasters,
The Sonics,
The Blues Magoos,
Sex Pistols,
Ralphi Rosario,
Eve St. Jones,
Sonny Sharrock,
Don Cherry,
Maurizio,
Ultra Naté,
The Dead C,
Erykah Badu,
the Soft Cell,
Wings,
Rufus Thomas,
Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force.
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.