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 South Africa and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 harpsichord 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 Grandmaster Flash to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Scrapy. All the underground hits.
All Man Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grey Daturas 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pierre Henry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Magazine,
Joy Division,
Joyce Sims,
Tropical Tobacco,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Sam Rivers,
the Sonics,
Public Image Ltd.,
The United States of America,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Erasure,
Pole,
The Dave Clark Five,
Accadde A,
Stiv Bators,
Underground Resistance,
The Sound,
The Wake,
Spoonie Gee,
The Gap Band,
Stereo Dub,
David Bowie,
Jacques Brel,
Moebius,
Hot Snakes,
Nation of Ulysses,
Black Sheep,
John Holt,
Susan Cadogan,
Mission of Burma,
Crash Course in Science,
The Smiths,
Brand Nubian,
Pantaleimon,
Alton Ellis,
Bad Manners,
Q and Not U,
Roxette,
UT,
The Tremeloes,
Section 25,
Wally Richardson,
The Cure,
Drexciya,
Dawn Penn,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Grass Roots,
Quadrant,
Smog,
Arthur Verocai,
Black Flag,
the Germs,
Pulsallama,
The Zeros,
The Stooges,
8 Eyed Spy,
Wire,
Junior Murvin,
Soul II Soul,
The Skatalites,
The Vogues,
Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters.
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.