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 Cyprus and from Cairo.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the snare 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 Blackbyrds to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Flipper. All the underground hits.
All The Busters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Half Japanese 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Ralphi Rosario record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Bowie,
Young Marble Giants,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Derrick May,
Maurizio,
John Holt,
Wings,
Bad Manners,
Sonic Youth,
Camberwell Now,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Buckinghams,
Chrome,
Loose Ends,
Darondo,
Zapp,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Eurythmics,
John Coltrane,
X-Ray Spex,
X-102,
Newcleus,
Robert Hood,
Soft Machine,
Prince Buster,
The Grass Roots,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Gories,
UT,
Mark Hollis,
Television Personalities,
The Skatalites,
Trumans Water,
Joy Division,
The Seeds,
The Shadows of Knight,
Radiopuhelimet,
Japan,
The Associates,
Steve Hackett,
Soft Cell,
Minor Threat,
Bill Near,
the Slits,
Vladislav Delay,
Roxy Music,
The Fortunes,
Brand Nubian,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Danielle Patucci,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Neu!,
the Germs,
The Pretty Things,
Bobby Hutcherson,
H. Thieme,
Swans,
Los Fastidios,
Isaac Hayes,
Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley, Tim Buckley.
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.