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 Uzbekistan and from Accra.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Lucky Dragons to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sly & The Family Stone. All the underground hits.
All Subhumans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blake Baxter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lafayette Afro Rock Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Iggy Pop,
Donald Byrd,
The Standells,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Max Romeo,
Charles Mingus,
A Certain Ratio,
The Beau Brummels,
Niagra,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
New York Dolls,
Peter & Gordon,
H. Thieme,
Liliput,
The Residents,
Cybotron,
Funky Four + One,
Sandy B,
Agitation Free,
Von Mondo,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Judy Mowatt,
kango's stein massive,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Happenings,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Flamin' Groovies,
Model 500,
Throbbing Gristle,
The American Breed,
Gang of Four,
The Music Machine,
Severed Heads,
John Coltrane,
CMW,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Star Department,
Alphaville,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Crash Course in Science,
The Cowsills,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Motions,
Sällskapet,
Suburban Knight,
Inner City,
Ultimate Spinach,
Marvin Gaye,
The Kinks,
The Gap Band,
Animal Collective,
UT,
The New Christs,
Mantronix,
Monks,
Sight & Sound,
Soul Sonic Force,
Delon & Dalcan,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Barbara Tucker,
Audionom,
Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose, Fifty Foot Hose.
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.