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 Bhutan and from Accra.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish to the dance 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 Kool Moe Dee. All the underground hits.
All Eurythmics tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bill Near record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Blackbyrds record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swell Maps,
Eve St. Jones,
Gang Starr,
Faust,
Radiohead,
Youth Brigade,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Interpol,
The Skatalites,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Dark Day,
Amazonics,
Bob Dylan,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
the Bar-Kays,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Warsaw,
Fluxion,
The Busters,
Gang Green,
A Certain Ratio,
Maurizio,
Judy Mowatt,
Adolescents,
Jawbox,
The Pop Group,
OOIOO,
Hashim,
Quando Quango,
Carl Craig,
Dual Sessions,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
10cc,
The Stooges,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ultravox,
Max Romeo,
Man Parrish,
Cal Tjader,
Subhumans,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gil Scott Heron,
Jeff Mills,
Brand Nubian,
Steve Hackett,
Wings,
Johnny Osbourne,
Faraquet,
Ituana,
The Durutti Column,
Kenny Larkin,
Rosa Yemen,
Quadrant,
The Move,
Kevin Saunderson,
Flash Fearless,
Thompson Twins,
Kerrie Biddell,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Smiths,
Von Mondo,
Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe.
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.