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 Moldova and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Paris.
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 clarinet 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 Eve St. Jones to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rotary Connection record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Fortunes,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
John Cale,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
The Slackers,
Flash Fearless,
Scratch Acid,
Ralphi Rosario,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Don Cherry,
Eric Copeland,
Brass Construction,
Masters at Work,
Inner City,
Eric Dolphy,
Moby Grape,
Bang On A Can,
Basic Channel,
Jacob Miller,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Doobie Brothers,
Second Layer,
John Lydon,
The New Christs,
The Moleskins,
Bad Manners,
Man Parrish,
Jawbox,
Joey Negro,
Drexciya,
Schoolly D,
LL Cool J,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Eve St. Jones,
June of 44,
Y Pants,
Lou Christie,
Gastr Del Sol,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Fugazi,
Shuggie Otis,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Q65,
DNA,
Jimmy McGriff,
the Normal,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Roy Ayers,
Joe Smooth,
Laurel Aitken,
Charles Mingus,
Bobby Womack,
Amazonics,
Sam Rivers,
Mark Hollis,
The United States of America,
Piero Umiliani,
Archie Shepp,
Wolf Eyes,
Chrome,
Section 25,
The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds.
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.