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 Saudi Arabia and from Jakarta.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Hot Snakes to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. All the underground hits.
All Donny Hathaway tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sugar Minott record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ralphi Rosario record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
DJ Sneak,
Boz Scaggs,
Neil Young,
James White and The Blacks,
Faust,
Alton Ellis,
L. Decosne,
the Slits,
Sex Pistols,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Byron Stingily,
Carl Craig,
Ultimate Spinach,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Roy Ayers,
The Gun Club,
Subhumans,
Pharoah Sanders,
Rhythm & Sound,
Zero Boys,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Funkadelic,
Jesper Dahlback,
Bizarre Inc.,
Camberwell Now,
Kurtis Blow,
Index,
The Sisters of Mercy,
John Foxx,
ABC,
Mad Mike,
Urselle,
Q and Not U,
Yellowson,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Television Personalities,
Technova,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Kool Moe Dee,
AZ,
Sister Nancy,
Japan,
Smog,
Tom Boy,
Jandek,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Red Krayola,
Groovy Waters,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
B.T. Express,
Archie Shepp,
Bush Tetras,
Black Sheep,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Section 25,
Pussy Galore,
Warsaw,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Toasters,
Kas Product, Kas Product, Kas Product, Kas Product.
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.