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 Afghanistan and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 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 Fatback Band to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All Angry Samoans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Major Organ And The Adding Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a It's A Beautiful Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar 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?
John Cale,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Gladiators,
Jeff Mills,
Minor Threat,
Tres Demented,
Livin' Joy,
John Lydon,
Pagans,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Neon Judgement,
Erasure,
Whodini,
Gerry Rafferty,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Evens,
Essential Logic,
Susan Cadogan,
Shoche,
The Searchers,
Blake Baxter,
The New Christs,
PIL,
Steve Hackett,
Man Parrish,
The Dirtbombs,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Fad Gadget,
Theoretical Girls,
Popol Vuh,
The Buckinghams,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Motorama,
The Detroit Cobras,
Cal Tjader,
Angry Samoans,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Thompson Twins,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Matthew Bourne,
Stockholm Monsters,
Letta Mbulu,
Von Mondo,
Q and Not U,
David Bowie,
Marcia Griffiths,
Y Pants,
Sixth Finger,
Robert Görl,
ABC,
Grey Daturas,
48th St. Collective,
AZ,
Iggy Pop,
Television,
Isaac Hayes,
Nation of Ulysses,
Darondo,
The Fire Engines,
Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol, Gastr Del Sol.
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.