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 Seychelles and from Lille.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the güiro 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 James White and The Blacks 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 Patti Smith. All the underground hits.
All Shuggie Otis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yusef Lateef record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang On A Can,
The Alarm Clocks,
Rhythm & Sound,
Scrapy,
Skriet,
Radiohead,
The Velvet Underground,
Curtis Mayfield,
Dual Sessions,
The Moleskins,
Minnie Riperton,
Sexual Harrassment,
Mary Jane Girls,
Glambeats Corp.,
Peter and Kerry,
Andrew Hill,
Popol Vuh,
DNA,
New Age Steppers,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Doobie Brothers,
X-Ray Spex,
Magazine,
Anthony Braxton,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Barclay James Harvest,
Sonic Youth,
U.S. Maple,
Crispian St. Peters,
Blancmange,
New Order,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Divine Comedy,
Eric Copeland,
Von Mondo,
Ultimate Spinach,
China Crisis,
Nirvana,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Brand Nubian,
Mission of Burma,
Tommy Roe,
Black Bananas,
Q and Not U,
Joy Division,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Dave Clark Five,
Marshall Jefferson,
Mr. Review,
Ponytail,
Animal Collective,
Connie Case,
Pantytec,
Royal Trux,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Negative Approach,
The Flesh Eaters,
Jerry's Kids,
Crooked Eye,
48th St. Collective,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth, Reagan Youth.
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.