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 Zimbabwe and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Kool Moe Dee to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Minny Pops. All the underground hits.
All Terrestrial Tones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arab on Radar record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Bar-Kays,
The Sound,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ronan,
Icehouse,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Last Poets,
Faraquet,
Groovy Waters,
Metal Thangz,
Smog,
Carl Craig,
Arab on Radar,
Throbbing Gristle,
Joe Smooth,
Ronnie Foster,
Heaven 17,
Gregory Isaacs,
Roger Hodgson,
Zero Boys,
Sound Behaviour,
The Gladiators,
The Fuzztones,
Colin Newman,
Roy Ayers,
KRS-One,
Stereo Dub,
Harry Pussy,
Yusef Lateef,
Fat Boys,
Pere Ubu,
Kenny Larkin,
MC5,
the Swans,
The Evens,
The Knickerbockers,
Vainqueur,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sam Rivers,
X-102,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Wolf Eyes,
Average White Band,
Rakim,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Pretty Things,
Marmalade,
The Mummies,
Radio Birdman,
Ludus,
48th St. Collective,
Kevin Saunderson,
Steve Hackett,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Youth Brigade,
the Sonics,
Junior Murvin,
Dennis Brown,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.