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 San Marino and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic to the dance 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 Circle Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fear record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lonnie Liston Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Standells,
New Age Steppers,
The Selecter,
Youth Brigade,
Jerry's Kids,
Donald Byrd,
Sugar Minott,
Stiv Bators,
Soft Cell,
the Sonics,
Japan,
Schoolly D,
Robert Wyatt,
Lindisfarne,
Bad Manners,
Hashim,
Angry Samoans,
Gang of Four,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Max Romeo,
The Busters,
ABC,
Joey Negro,
Cal Tjader,
Jacob Miller,
The Misunderstood,
Yusef Lateef,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Victims,
Archie Shepp,
The Litter,
Audionom,
Das Ding,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Sound Behaviour,
Dennis Brown,
Anthony Braxton,
Matthew Halsall,
Moss Icon,
Tubeway Army,
The Smoke,
The Pop Group,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Evens,
Loose Ends,
U.S. Maple,
B.T. Express,
Nation of Ulysses,
Pharoah Sanders,
Eurythmics,
John Cale,
Mantronix,
L. Decosne,
Liliput,
Khruangbin,
Crash Course in Science,
Henry Cow,
Lucky Dragons,
Mars,
Skriet,
Black Bananas,
The Skatalites, The Skatalites, The Skatalites, The Skatalites.
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.