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 Georgia and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 marimba 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 Kayak to the funk 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 Severed Heads. All the underground hits.
All Curtis Mayfield tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dawn Penn 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Jesus and Mary Chain record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Freddie Wadling,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Music Machine,
The Fall,
Suburban Knight,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
X-Ray Spex,
Grey Daturas,
The Searchers,
Flash Fearless,
Dorothy Ashby,
Pharoah Sanders,
The J.B.'s,
Fluxion,
Roxette,
Cal Tjader,
Vladislav Delay,
Simply Red,
H. Thieme,
Section 25,
Television,
Archie Shepp,
Public Image Ltd.,
Crispy Ambulance,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Johnny Osbourne,
Mission of Burma,
Icehouse,
MDC,
Average White Band,
LL Cool J,
Mr. Review,
Can,
The Grass Roots,
Cameo,
Dark Day,
Bobby Byrd,
Terry Callier,
Joy Division,
Talk Talk,
Charles Mingus,
Pierre Henry,
Rakim,
Arthur Verocai,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Animal Collective,
The Index,
Sarah Menescal,
The Toasters,
The Neon Judgement,
Shoche,
Davy DMX,
JFA,
Robert Wyatt,
Roger Hodgson,
The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins.
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.