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 France and from Lagos.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Germs to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Wire 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 rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ralphi Rosario record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Litter,
Angry Samoans,
Public Enemy,
Thompson Twins,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Lindisfarne,
Swell Maps,
The Last Poets,
Vainqueur,
Flipper,
Hoover,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Smoke,
Joey Negro,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Brothers Johnson,
Ohio Players,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Rites of Spring,
Bob Dylan,
Stockholm Monsters,
Howard Jones,
Mandrill,
Gong,
Fela Kuti,
Gil Scott Heron,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Count Five,
Joe Finger,
Mars,
Arcadia,
The Monochrome Set,
The Stooges,
Rapeman,
Throbbing Gristle,
Model 500,
Grey Daturas,
Jawbox,
These Immortal Souls,
Grandmaster Flash,
Joensuu 1685,
the Swans,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Intrusion,
Charles Mingus,
The Dirtbombs,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bobby Sherman,
Harpers Bizarre,
Maleditus Sound,
Lungfish,
Arthur Verocai,
Funkadelic,
Ralphi Rosario,
Scott Walker,
The New Christs,
Motorama,
Blossom Toes,
OOIOO,
Bang On A Can,
The Happenings,
The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues.
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.