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 Turkmenistan 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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Philadelphia.
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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the oboe 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 Yazoo to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All Nirvana tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rhythim Is Rhythim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Terrestrial Tones,
Rufus Thomas,
Barclay James Harvest,
Radiohead,
Harmonia,
Duran Duran,
Patti Smith,
The Tremeloes,
Flamin' Groovies,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Ten City,
Robert Görl,
Darondo,
The Electric Prunes,
Tres Demented,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Neu!,
Junior Murvin,
the Slits,
Gregory Isaacs,
Sugar Minott,
Soft Machine,
Cal Tjader,
The Golliwogs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Slackers,
The Raincoats,
Barry Ungar,
Siglo XX,
The Blues Magoos,
Ohio Players,
Sun City Girls,
Gichy Dan,
The Happenings,
Average White Band,
The Fuzztones,
Laurel Aitken,
Ken Boothe,
Glambeats Corp.,
John Cale,
Cecil Taylor,
Hashim,
the Bar-Kays,
KRS-One,
JFA,
Ossler,
Idris Muhammad,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
the Fania All-Stars,
MDC,
Rites of Spring,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Young Rascals,
Lakeside,
DNA,
Excepter,
Aloha Tigers,
Sam Rivers,
The Star Department,
Aswad,
Dorothy Ashby,
Erasure,
Dennis Brown,
Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe.
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.