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 Armenia and from Woodstock.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 OOIOO to the techno 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 Youth Brigade. All the underground hits.
All Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Throbbing Gristle record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lakeside record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Saints,
Gregory Isaacs,
Gil Scott Heron,
Ponytail,
Wire,
Alton Ellis,
Tom Boy,
Newcleus,
Barbara Tucker,
Slave,
The Neon Judgement,
Cecil Taylor,
Eric Copeland,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Deakin,
Lindisfarne,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Arab on Radar,
DNA,
The Toasters,
Gichy Dan,
The Cure,
Harry Pussy,
Joe Smooth,
Magma,
The Pop Group,
Josef K,
Juan Atkins,
Television,
Swell Maps,
Reagan Youth,
Davy DMX,
the Normal,
Desert Stars,
Albert Ayler,
T. Rex,
Throbbing Gristle,
Rotary Connection,
Oblivians,
Piero Umiliani,
Yusef Lateef,
Jeff Lynne,
Letta Mbulu,
Marshall Jefferson,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sugar Minott,
Ronan,
Bauhaus,
Bobby Byrd,
Ultimate Spinach,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Chris Corsano,
The Last Poets,
Marcia Griffiths,
Funkadelic,
Charles Mingus,
Skarface,
Buzzcocks,
Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin, Junior Murvin.
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.