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 Indonesia and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the theremin 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 X-101 to the grunge 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 Bobby Womack. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Stiv Bators 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?
The Cowsills,
Skriet,
The Motions,
Parry Music,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Icehouse,
Gichy Dan,
Oneida,
Jandek,
The Gladiators,
The Modern Lovers,
Organ,
Deadbeat,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Darondo,
Mary Jane Girls,
Saccharine Trust,
Sparks,
Stiv Bators,
CMW,
New Order,
Sixth Finger,
John Holt,
Little Man,
Average White Band,
Bluetip,
10cc,
Motorama,
Unrelated Segments,
Faraquet,
The New Christs,
Supertramp,
48th St. Collective,
Liliput,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Amon Düül II,
Cecil Taylor,
The Flesh Eaters,
Monolake,
Chris & Cosey,
Donny Hathaway,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ultravox,
Infiniti,
Black Bananas,
Rakim,
Curtis Mayfield,
Eric B and Rakim,
Ice-T,
Connie Case,
Wally Richardson,
Bauhaus,
Derrick Morgan,
The Angels of Light,
Bang On A Can,
Jacob Miller,
Fugazi,
Eric Copeland,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.