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 Antigua and from Mexico City.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 John Holt to the grunge 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 Jacob Miller. All the underground hits.
All The Monks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Warsaw 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott Heron,
Bill Near,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Dark Day,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Bobby Womack,
Young Marble Giants,
Quantec,
Danielle Patucci,
DNA,
The Last Poets,
Robert Görl,
Todd Terry,
Neil Young,
Pylon,
Depeche Mode,
AZ,
Sister Nancy,
Basic Channel,
Rosa Yemen,
The Flesh Eaters,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Anakelly,
Scientists,
Skarface,
Lalann,
Gong,
The Selecter,
Stetsasonic,
Slave,
Flipper,
The Litter,
Glambeats Corp.,
Man Parrish,
Q and Not U,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bill Wells,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Symarip,
Dave Gahan,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Arcadia,
Barbara Tucker,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Lyres,
Blossom Toes,
Mars,
Brothers Johnson,
Mo-Dettes,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Delon & Dalcan,
Robert Wyatt,
Cecil Taylor,
Essential Logic,
Sam Rivers,
Malaria!,
Stereo Dub,
Johnny Clarke,
Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama, Pulsallama.
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.