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 Serbia and from Paris.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Milan.
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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the linndrum 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 A Flock of Seagulls to the rock 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 Jimmy McGriff. All the underground hits.
All Scratch Acid tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Man Parrish 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Donny Hathaway,
In Retrospect,
Magma,
Pere Ubu,
UT,
Bad Manners,
Blake Baxter,
Sonic Youth,
Minnie Riperton,
The Young Rascals,
Stiv Bators,
Tim Buckley,
Danielle Patucci,
Smog,
Derrick May,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Techniques,
Robert Hood,
The Tremeloes,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Heaven 17,
Procol Harum,
Roy Ayers,
Aaron Thompson,
E-Dancer,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Evens,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Wake,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pierre Henry,
Sight & Sound,
L. Decosne,
Liliput,
The Seeds,
Fear,
Piero Umiliani,
The Offenders,
The Count Five,
Minny Pops,
Bobby Womack,
Aural Exciters,
Mary Jane Girls,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Anakelly,
Harpers Bizarre,
John Coltrane,
Jeru the Damaja,
Agent Orange,
Oblivians,
The Smiths,
Marvin Gaye,
Minutemen,
Mars,
Matthew Bourne,
Lower 48,
Dawn Penn,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Ossler,
Freddie Wadling,
Bobby Sherman,
Radiohead,
The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band.
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.