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 Burundi and from New York.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Shoche to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Eli Mardock. All the underground hits.
All Gong tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Leaves 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tom Boy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Letta Mbulu,
Vladislav Delay,
Dawn Penn,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Tropical Tobacco,
Stockholm Monsters,
Ken Boothe,
The Mojo Men,
Khruangbin,
The Monochrome Set,
Todd Rundgren,
The Smoke,
Hasil Adkins,
Rapeman,
The Grass Roots,
Lakeside,
X-102,
The Leaves,
Excepter,
The Offenders,
Sight & Sound,
Roy Ayers,
New York Dolls,
Pagans,
Chris Corsano,
Urselle,
H. Thieme,
Gastr Del Sol,
Eli Mardock,
Procol Harum,
Second Layer,
Ten City,
Lebanon Hanover,
48th St. Collective,
World's Most,
Fad Gadget,
Cybotron,
Cymande,
The Raincoats,
The Barracudas,
Moebius,
Terrestrial Tones,
Slave,
The Mummies,
The Star Department,
New Age Steppers,
Camouflage,
Faust,
Hoover,
Animal Collective,
Matthew Halsall,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Gil Scott Heron,
D'Angelo,
Jacques Brel,
Gerry Rafferty,
Colin Newman,
The Black Dice,
Inner City,
The Standells,
Strawberry Alarm Clock, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Strawberry Alarm Clock.
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.