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 Gambia and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 The Doors to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 London Community Gospel Choir. All the underground hits.
All X-101 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roy Ayers Ubiquity record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobby Sherman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacob Miller,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ten City,
Kaleidoscope,
The Sonics,
the Soft Cell,
Marvin Gaye,
Wolf Eyes,
Alice Coltrane,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Nils Olav,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Underground Resistance,
Piero Umiliani,
10cc,
Steve Hackett,
Bobby Sherman,
The Grass Roots,
Pantaleimon,
John Coltrane,
David Axelrod,
Derrick May,
Big Daddy Kane,
Soul Sonic Force,
Technova,
Janne Schatter,
Panda Bear,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Japan,
Youth Brigade,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Man Eating Sloth,
the Germs,
Quadrant,
The Sound,
Yaz,
The Wake,
Sugar Minott,
Harmonia,
The Young Rascals,
Barbara Tucker,
Spandau Ballet,
Warsaw,
The Divine Comedy,
The Kinks,
Yusef Lateef,
Dawn Penn,
Anakelly,
Graham Central Station,
Liliput,
Tomorrow,
Y Pants,
Kerrie Biddell,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Fela Kuti,
Kenny Larkin,
Main Source,
The Martian,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
L. Decosne,
Cecil Taylor,
Alton Ellis,
Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee, Spoonie Gee.
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.