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 Nigeria and from Stockholm.
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 1962 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Ice-T to the funk 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 X-Ray Spex. All the underground hits.
All Grandmaster Flash tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
Lower 48,
Fela Kuti,
A Certain Ratio,
Faraquet,
Althea and Donna,
Cheater Slicks,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Saints,
AZ,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Excepter,
Nik Kershaw,
Youth Brigade,
Graham Central Station,
The Selecter,
the Germs,
Barbara Tucker,
In Retrospect,
ABBA,
The Fugs,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
ABC,
Negative Approach,
Theoretical Girls,
Rites of Spring,
Mo-Dettes,
H. Thieme,
Flamin' Groovies,
David McCallum,
John Foxx,
Cameo,
Pantytec,
Glenn Branca,
Barclay James Harvest,
Judy Mowatt,
Eden Ahbez,
Grauzone,
Arab on Radar,
Pulsallama,
Yusef Lateef,
Howard Jones,
Fugazi,
LL Cool J,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Whodini,
Kerri Chandler,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Music Machine,
Sister Nancy,
The Red Krayola,
Minutemen,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Electric Prunes,
Rekid,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Dark Day,
Lyres,
The Busters,
Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance, Crispy Ambulance.
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.