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 Ivory Coast and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Terry Callier to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Sherman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sun Ra Arkestra record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 chamberlin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Hood record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonic Youth,
Stereo Dub,
Girls At Our Best!,
Second Layer,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Amon Düül II,
The Selecter,
Interpol,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Siglo XX,
Ralphi Rosario,
Funkadelic,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Glenn Branca,
Nik Kershaw,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Newcleus,
Inner City,
Flash Fearless,
Stetsasonic,
The Slits,
Man Parrish,
The Gap Band,
LL Cool J,
JFA,
Soulsonic Force,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Busters,
Average White Band,
Barclay James Harvest,
New York Dolls,
Electric Prunes,
The Saints,
Ice-T,
Skriet,
Model 500,
Saccharine Trust,
Davy DMX,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tres Demented,
The Five Americans,
Brand Nubian,
Susan Cadogan,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Harmonia,
Sun Ra,
The Misunderstood,
Avey Tare,
Cal Tjader,
The Monochrome Set,
The Offenders,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Eric Dolphy,
Donny Hathaway,
Dawn Penn,
Lungfish,
Agitation Free,
Magma,
the Bar-Kays,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cymande, Cymande, Cymande, Cymande.
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.