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 Brazil and from Johannesburg.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Man Eating Sloth to the rock 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 Monolake. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Spoonie Gee record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Television Personalities,
Main Source,
Donny Hathaway,
The Fugs,
Todd Terry,
Sarah Menescal,
Davy DMX,
Anthony Braxton,
Drexciya,
Ultimate Spinach,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Lightning Bolt,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Brand Nubian,
The Black Dice,
Donald Byrd,
Agitation Free,
Cymande,
Adolescents,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Techniques,
The Velvet Underground,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Red Krayola,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
John Coltrane,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Jeru the Damaja,
Slave,
Theoretical Girls,
The Busters,
The Sonics,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Minor Threat,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Kas Product,
Eden Ahbez,
Popol Vuh,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Moby Grape,
Johnny Clarke,
Sandy B,
Rites of Spring,
Television,
Ken Boothe,
The Seeds,
Tropical Tobacco,
Crash Course in Science,
Magma,
T.S.O.L.,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sex Pistols,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Cluster,
Bobby Byrd,
Bush Tetras,
Suburban Knight,
The Gap Band,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.