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 Fiji and from Hong Kong.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Cal Tjader to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Liaisons Dangereuses. All the underground hits.
All The Monochrome Set tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Divine Comedy 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Man Eating Sloth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nas,
The Sonics,
Soft Machine,
Marine Girls,
Minutemen,
Nils Olav,
Johnny Clarke,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Eurythmics,
Amon Düül,
Neu!,
Fat Boys,
Morten Harket,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rhythm & Sound,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Duran Duran,
Black Bananas,
Simply Red,
Albert Ayler,
The Smoke,
Niagra,
Arab on Radar,
The Names,
Cymande,
Man Eating Sloth,
Public Image Ltd.,
Gil Scott Heron,
E-Dancer,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Skatalites,
Joe Finger,
DJ Style,
Mission of Burma,
Kenny Larkin,
Soulsonic Force,
The Monks,
Smog,
The Dave Clark Five,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Anthony Braxton,
Marvin Gaye,
Sam Rivers,
Section 25,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Human League,
The Selecter,
Lucky Dragons,
Young Marble Giants,
Jeff Lynne,
Fatback Band,
Wolf Eyes,
The Blues Magoos,
Pharoah Sanders,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Prince Buster,
Mr. Review,
The Gories,
Massinfluence,
Alton Ellis,
Carl Craig,
Negative Approach,
Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters.
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.