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 Mali and from Hong Kong.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the oboe 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 The Angels of Light to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Ice-T. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Halsall record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Reuben Wilson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Axelrod,
Roxette,
The Moleskins,
Ken Boothe,
Hardrive,
Public Image Ltd.,
Glenn Branca,
The Pop Group,
Schoolly D,
the Human League,
Gang Green,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Ralphi Rosario,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Pet Shop Boys,
Nils Olav,
Todd Terry,
Alice Coltrane,
Slick Rick,
Smog,
Johnny Osbourne,
Girls At Our Best!,
Vainqueur,
Magma,
Radiopuhelimet,
Harpers Bizarre,
Barrington Levy,
Ultravox,
Erykah Badu,
David Bowie,
Intrusion,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Dark Day,
Dennis Brown,
Funky Four + One,
Althea and Donna,
The Music Machine,
The Cramps,
Brass Construction,
The Dave Clark Five,
Robert Hood,
Gang Gang Dance,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Arab on Radar,
Tubeway Army,
Minutemen,
Eve St. Jones,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The United States of America,
The Seeds,
PIL,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Yusef Lateef,
Kayak,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Essential Logic,
The Flesh Eaters,
Oneida, Oneida, Oneida, Oneida.
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.