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 Ukraine and from Bologna.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the marimba 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 The Residents to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sarah Menescal. All the underground hits.
All Jesper Dahlback tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bad Manners record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultramagnetic MC's record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Leonard Cohen,
Boogie Down Productions,
Desert Stars,
John Coltrane,
Jimmy McGriff,
Slave,
Bobby Womack,
the Sonics,
Traffic Nightmare,
Rod Modell,
Matthew Bourne,
Whodini,
Lower 48,
Joy Division,
Kenny Larkin,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lungfish,
Roxette,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
F. McDonald,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Johnny Clarke,
Second Layer,
Minutemen,
Ponytail,
Zero Boys,
Y Pants,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Misunderstood,
Scrapy,
Max Romeo,
Tom Boy,
Robert Görl,
Avey Tare,
Babytalk,
Japan,
PIL,
The Golliwogs,
Anthony Braxton,
Tropical Tobacco,
Robert Wyatt,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Music Machine,
The Leaves,
Moebius,
Nation of Ulysses,
Brass Construction,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Marmalade,
The New Christs,
the Normal,
L. Decosne,
Model 500,
Robert Hood,
Graham Central Station,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Ultra Naté,
Jacob Miller,
Nils Olav,
This Heat,
Cameo, Cameo, Cameo, Cameo.
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.