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 Burundi and from Stockholm.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the marimba 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 Quando Quango to the rock 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 Arab on Radar. All the underground hits.
All Peter and Kerry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jeff Lynne 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 spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ice-T,
In Retrospect,
Yellowson,
Patti Smith,
Sandy B,
The Monochrome Set,
Aloha Tigers,
Lower 48,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
K-Klass,
The Star Department,
Blancmange,
Laurel Aitken,
Spoonie Gee,
Index,
Goldenarms,
Michelle Simonal,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Alarm Clocks,
Stereo Dub,
Chris Corsano,
Piero Umiliani,
The Velvet Underground,
The J.B.'s,
Slave,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Morten Harket,
The New Christs,
Reagan Youth,
Robert Görl,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Niagra,
The Remains,
Eric Copeland,
Popol Vuh,
The Doobie Brothers,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Second Layer,
World's Most,
Al Stewart,
Basic Channel,
Liliput,
Shuggie Otis,
The Moody Blues,
The Cure,
Supertramp,
Infiniti,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Oblivians,
the Fania All-Stars,
Andrew Hill,
Pussy Galore,
The Last Poets,
the Bar-Kays,
Underground Resistance,
Arab on Radar,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Don Cherry,
Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends, Loose Ends.
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.