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 Australia and from Delhi.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 chamberlin 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu. All the underground hits.
All Fat Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ituana record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Cymande,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Neil Young,
Matthew Bourne,
Magma,
Scan 7,
Barrington Levy,
Hot Snakes,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Mojo Men,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rotary Connection,
Unrelated Segments,
Joensuu 1685,
F. McDonald,
The Pretty Things,
Gong,
8 Eyed Spy,
R.M.O.,
Thee Headcoats,
Dawn Penn,
Radiopuhelimet,
Sandy B,
Rhythm & Sound,
Radiohead,
Kenny Larkin,
Visage,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Mandrill,
Massinfluence,
Minnie Riperton,
Section 25,
The Blackbyrds,
Bronski Beat,
MDC,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Skatalites,
Brothers Johnson,
Surgeon,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Mummies,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Saints,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Quadrant,
The Slits,
Aloha Tigers,
Alice Coltrane,
The Human League,
Skriet,
Funky Four + One,
Piero Umiliani,
Average White Band,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Toni Rubio,
The Knickerbockers,
Organ,
Gil Scott Heron,
Tim Buckley,
The Move, The Move, The Move, The Move.
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.