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 Malaysia and from Delhi.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 mellotron 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 Scott Walker to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Camouflage. All the underground hits.
All Heavy D & The Boyz tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Amon Düül record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Charles Mingus,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The American Breed,
The Last Poets,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Cymande,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Delon & Dalcan,
Grandmaster Flash,
Johnny Osbourne,
the Slits,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
David McCallum,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Swans,
Prince Buster,
Bizarre Inc.,
Lucky Dragons,
London Community Gospel Choir,
New Order,
Sight & Sound,
Accadde A,
Essential Logic,
Absolute Body Control,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Con Funk Shun,
The Saints,
Ultimate Spinach,
Sandy B,
Amazonics,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Urselle,
Supertramp,
Maleditus Sound,
Yaz,
Rakim,
The Music Machine,
Sexual Harrassment,
the Bar-Kays,
Avey Tare,
The Buckinghams,
Tubeway Army,
Pulsallama,
Excepter,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Derrick May,
Bush Tetras,
The Associates,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Sister Nancy,
Maurizio,
The Gap Band,
Robert Wyatt,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Harmonia,
Marcia Griffiths,
Lindisfarne,
The Happenings,
Rosa Yemen,
Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja, Jeru the Damaja.
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.