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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Bootsy Collins to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bootsy Collins. All the underground hits.
All Visage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nirvana,
8 Eyed Spy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Public Image Ltd.,
the Bar-Kays,
The Techniques,
Scrapy,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Vladislav Delay,
Skaos,
48th St. Collective,
the Normal,
Roxy Music,
Anthony Braxton,
Zero Boys,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Neon Judgement,
LL Cool J,
Q and Not U,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Doobie Brothers,
Alphaville,
Godley & Creme,
Stiv Bators,
The Martian,
Radiohead,
Liliput,
The Real Kids,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Arthur Verocai,
the Slits,
the Fania All-Stars,
Lebanon Hanover,
London Community Gospel Choir,
E-Dancer,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
June of 44,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Magma,
The Angels of Light,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bang On A Can,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Albert Ayler,
Juan Atkins,
The Dead C,
Unwound,
the Swans,
Boz Scaggs,
John Holt,
the Association,
The Victims,
The Cramps,
The Litter,
The Pop Group,
Dawn Penn,
Aloha Tigers,
Boredoms,
Absolute Body Control,
Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D.
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.