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 Tunisia and from Mexico City.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Jacob Miller to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magma record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Fear,
Khruangbin,
Camouflage,
Hot Snakes,
The Zeros,
The Slits,
Moby Grape,
D'Angelo,
Amon Düül II,
Minnie Riperton,
Nils Olav,
DJ Sneak,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sandy B,
Fatback Band,
Underground Resistance,
Joyce Sims,
Moss Icon,
Scratch Acid,
Marine Girls,
The Stooges,
Kerri Chandler,
Scrapy,
Mars,
Bob Dylan,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Connie Case,
the Human League,
Outsiders,
The New Christs,
Thee Headcoats,
The Alarm Clocks,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Barry Ungar,
Warren Ellis,
The Move,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Babytalk,
Qualms,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Guru Guru,
F. McDonald,
Juan Atkins,
Erasure,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Jeru the Damaja,
Delta 5,
Jeff Lynne,
the Sonics,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Dawn Penn,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Junior Murvin,
Faust,
Eddi Front,
Man Eating Sloth,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Bauhaus,
Shuggie Otis,
JFA, JFA, JFA, JFA.
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.