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 Zimbabwe and from Hong Kong.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Last Poets to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Barrington Levy. All the underground hits.
All Bad Manners tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arab on Radar record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 chamberlin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echospace record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Flipper,
The Gap Band,
The Moleskins,
LL Cool J,
Surgeon,
X-102,
The Grass Roots,
Absolute Body Control,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Matthew Bourne,
Harry Pussy,
Donald Byrd,
Man Eating Sloth,
Roxette,
Hardrive,
Gabor Szabo,
Tom Boy,
OOIOO,
Rites of Spring,
Unwound,
Sonic Youth,
The Durutti Column,
Sandy B,
Janne Schatter,
Alphaville,
Sex Pistols,
Outsiders,
kango's stein massive,
Cameo,
Talk Talk,
Toni Rubio,
The Martian,
Cal Tjader,
John Lydon,
Underground Resistance,
CMW,
Massinfluence,
Basic Channel,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Seeds,
Camouflage,
Lungfish,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Organ,
MDC,
Carl Craig,
Accadde A,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Gang Green,
Swans,
The Remains,
Lyres,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Human League,
James White and The Blacks,
Marine Girls,
Skarface,
New Age Steppers,
Sound Behaviour,
Aaron Thompson,
Unrelated Segments,
The Velvet Underground,
Angry Samoans,
ABBA, ABBA, ABBA, ABBA.
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.