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 Bahamas and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar 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 Jeru the Damaja to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. All the underground hits.
All T.S.O.L. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Chocolate Watch Band 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 an arpeggiator and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
Alison Limerick,
Roxy Music,
Public Image Ltd.,
Donny Hathaway,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Pere Ubu,
Nico,
B.T. Express,
The Barracudas,
Barclay James Harvest,
Average White Band,
Ice-T,
Barbara Tucker,
Robert Hood,
the Normal,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Niagra,
Tropical Tobacco,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Flipper,
New Age Steppers,
Jawbox,
X-101,
Scrapy,
Marvin Gaye,
Prince Buster,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Modern Lovers,
Pulsallama,
Todd Rundgren,
Main Source,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Vogues,
Dead Boys,
Delta 5,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Japan,
The Residents,
The Selecter,
Iggy Pop,
Mission of Burma,
Curtis Mayfield,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Index,
The Wake,
The Cramps,
Soft Machine,
Banda Bassotti,
Bobby Womack,
Sandy B,
The Grass Roots,
Spandau Ballet,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Ken Boothe,
New York Dolls,
ABBA,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Josef K,
Sparks,
cv313, cv313, cv313, cv313.
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.