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 Samoa 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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the snare 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 Five Americans to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Mary Jane Girls. All the underground hits.
All Franke tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boz Scaggs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Fluxion,
Brand Nubian,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Dead Boys,
Silicon Teens,
Cybotron,
Hasil Adkins,
Goldenarms,
X-102,
Popol Vuh,
Tears for Fears,
Wings,
Darondo,
Hoover,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Knickerbockers,
the Association,
Mad Mike,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Althea and Donna,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Bush Tetras,
The Fuzztones,
Magma,
Siglo XX,
10cc,
Bang On A Can,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Camouflage,
Crispy Ambulance,
Harmonia,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Inner City,
Peter & Gordon,
H. Thieme,
The Angels of Light,
OOIOO,
Brass Construction,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Happenings,
The Dead C,
Archie Shepp,
R.M.O.,
Johnny Clarke,
Michelle Simonal,
Arthur Verocai,
Scrapy,
Television Personalities,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
This Heat,
Main Source,
Minny Pops,
Harry Pussy,
the Swans,
Liliput,
Prince Buster,
Cymande,
Charles Mingus,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Misunderstood,
Marcia Griffiths,
Monolake, Monolake, Monolake, Monolake.
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.