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 Botswana and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the rhodes 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the rock 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 Funky Four + One. All the underground hits.
All Sixth Finger tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Terry Callier record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Donny Hathaway record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Anakelly,
Sly & The Family Stone,
New Age Steppers,
Sex Pistols,
Alison Limerick,
F. McDonald,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Monks,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Aswad,
Iggy Pop,
Black Bananas,
The Searchers,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Stereo Dub,
The Kinks,
Robert Görl,
World's Most,
The Gap Band,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Subhumans,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Make Up,
Janne Schatter,
Man Parrish,
Average White Band,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Star Department,
Kayak,
Cameo,
the Slits,
Kas Product,
The Fire Engines,
Simply Red,
Gang of Four,
Harmonia,
Severed Heads,
Swell Maps,
Scientists,
Sarah Menescal,
UT,
48th St. Collective,
Dorothy Ashby,
Lower 48,
Andrew Hill,
Peter and Kerry,
Lyres,
Spoonie Gee,
Kurtis Blow,
The Angels of Light,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Hoover,
The Remains,
Jacques Brel,
the Normal,
Hasil Adkins,
Blossom Toes,
Fugazi,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Tom Boy,
The Mojo Men,
Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth.
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.