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 Russia and from Shanghai.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Knickerbockers to the crunk 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 Todd Terry. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Hill tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vladislav Delay record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Red Krayola record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moebius,
Johnny Clarke,
The Alarm Clocks,
Brass Construction,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
CMW,
K-Klass,
Essential Logic,
Pharoah Sanders,
Easy Going,
Shuggie Otis,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Robert Wyatt,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Robert Hood,
Aural Exciters,
Hot Snakes,
Tres Demented,
Nils Olav,
The Fugs,
Oblivians,
Janne Schatter,
Alton Ellis,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sound Behaviour,
The Sonics,
Black Bananas,
Maurizio,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Radiohead,
Fear,
Gong,
The Fall,
David Axelrod,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Todd Rundgren,
Adolescents,
Ossler,
Robert Görl,
Moss Icon,
Babytalk,
Al Stewart,
Patti Smith,
Ultra Naté,
Graham Central Station,
Joe Finger,
Rosa Yemen,
Kayak,
MDC,
The Wake,
Bush Tetras,
the Sonics,
Mandrill,
Frankie Knuckles,
Little Man,
Idris Muhammad,
David McCallum,
Tim Buckley,
Bauhaus,
Altered Images,
Lebanon Hanover,
Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader, Cal Tjader.
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.