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 East Timor and from Manila.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Idris Muhammad to the funk 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 The Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Isaac Hayes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Beau Brummels record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aswad,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Smoke,
The Flesh Eaters,
Judy Mowatt,
John Holt,
The Doors,
Make Up,
The Monks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Saccharine Trust,
Roxy Music,
Drexciya,
The Monochrome Set,
Maurizio,
Colin Newman,
Audionom,
the Human League,
Peter & Gordon,
Mad Mike,
Goldenarms,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ponytail,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Peter and Kerry,
The Mojo Men,
Ultimate Spinach,
Jeru the Damaja,
Marmalade,
Sexual Harrassment,
Roy Ayers,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Howard Jones,
Gregory Isaacs,
These Immortal Souls,
Eve St. Jones,
Minnie Riperton,
Brass Construction,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Wings,
48th St. Collective,
The Black Dice,
The Move,
E-Dancer,
the Bar-Kays,
ABBA,
Boogie Down Productions,
Brothers Johnson,
Model 500,
Alison Limerick,
Sun City Girls,
Barbara Tucker,
Minutemen,
Eric Dolphy,
Suburban Knight,
Q and Not U,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Moleskins,
Deadbeat,
Tim Buckley,
Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill, Mandrill.
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.