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 Kosovo and from Philadelphia.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Wings to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All T.S.O.L. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Notorious Big And Bone Thugs 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Fortunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kurtis Blow,
Funky Four + One,
Icehouse,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Count Five,
Sun Ra,
Outsiders,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Moss Icon,
Suicide,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Lee Hazlewood,
Pantytec,
Nirvana,
Little Man,
Chris & Cosey,
David Bowie,
the Swans,
Qualms,
Joensuu 1685,
10cc,
The Gap Band,
Subhumans,
E-Dancer,
Bill Wells,
Minutemen,
Joe Smooth,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Bananas,
Popol Vuh,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Faraquet,
Flamin' Groovies,
Roy Ayers,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Reuben Wilson,
Eddi Front,
Colin Newman,
Barry Ungar,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sam Rivers,
Jacques Brel,
Peter & Gordon,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Mojo Men,
Rhythm & Sound,
X-101,
Electric Prunes,
The Fortunes,
Chris Corsano,
Letta Mbulu,
Ronan,
Lalann,
Inner City,
Arcadia,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Red Krayola,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Barrington Levy,
The Cure,
X-102,
Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock.
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.