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 Uzbekistan and from Madrid.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Chocolate Watch Band to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Sparks. All the underground hits.
All Girls At Our Best! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Royal Family And The Poor record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terrestrial Tones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hashim,
Big Daddy Kane,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Section 25,
Marcia Griffiths,
Joy Division,
Nik Kershaw,
Funkadelic,
Mandrill,
Bill Wells,
The Seeds,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Altered Images,
Malaria!,
Yaz,
Byron Stingily,
Anthony Braxton,
Warsaw,
Agitation Free,
Absolute Body Control,
Supertramp,
New Age Steppers,
Brand Nubian,
PIL,
B.T. Express,
Fear,
Terry Callier,
Inner City,
Robert Wyatt,
Circle Jerks,
The Blues Magoos,
L. Decosne,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Alice Coltrane,
The Kinks,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Golliwogs,
Flash Fearless,
Country Teasers,
Livin' Joy,
The Gories,
A Certain Ratio,
Lyres,
Johnny Osbourne,
Skarface,
Swell Maps,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Quando Quango,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Trumans Water,
Kenny Larkin,
Ronnie Foster,
The Durutti Column,
UT,
Kaleidoscope,
Terrestrial Tones,
Nirvana,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Gang Gang Dance,
Jesper Dahlback,
Nico,
Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker.
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.