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 Seychelles and from Winnipeg.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs. All the underground hits.
All Pantaleimon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slave 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Don Cherry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Smiths,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Velvet Underground,
Nation of Ulysses,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Das Ding,
Adolescents,
Flash Fearless,
Big Daddy Kane,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Gong,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Shuggie Otis,
Dennis Brown,
Cheater Slicks,
Echospace,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
David McCallum,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Count Five,
Icehouse,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Grandmaster Flash,
Fela Kuti,
Desert Stars,
The Monochrome Set,
Stereo Dub,
Janne Schatter,
Eden Ahbez,
The Sound,
James White and The Blacks,
Donald Byrd,
Minnie Riperton,
Gabor Szabo,
The Music Machine,
Mission of Burma,
Agitation Free,
Andrew Hill,
The Sonics,
Idris Muhammad,
Rosa Yemen,
Saccharine Trust,
Cecil Taylor,
The Misunderstood,
Grey Daturas,
Skarface,
Arthur Verocai,
Easy Going,
the Germs,
Interpol,
Cameo,
Eve St. Jones,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Nick Fraelich,
One Last Wish,
Pierre Henry,
Little Man,
Tres Demented,
Talk Talk,
Lindisfarne,
Bobby Womack, Bobby Womack, Bobby Womack, Bobby Womack.
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.