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 Spain and from Woodstock.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the oboe 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 Junior Murvin to the rock 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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All The Dirtbombs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Pretty Things 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barrington Levy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Guru Guru,
Cluster,
Scan 7,
Freddie Wadling,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Jacob Miller,
Wasted Youth,
Lower 48,
Bang On A Can,
Ice-T,
Visage,
Johnny Clarke,
The Cure,
Amazonics,
the Germs,
Erasure,
Pussy Galore,
Pole,
Morten Harket,
Camouflage,
Audionom,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Boz Scaggs,
Arcadia,
Main Source,
Todd Terry,
Niagra,
David Bowie,
X-Ray Spex,
Gerry Rafferty,
Eve St. Jones,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Smog,
Charles Mingus,
The Fire Engines,
Bill Wells,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Roxy Music,
Joyce Sims,
Trumans Water,
Maleditus Sound,
The Slackers,
The Trojans,
Suburban Knight,
Alice Coltrane,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Subhumans,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
the Human League,
Massinfluence,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Von Mondo,
The Vogues,
Aloha Tigers,
Flamin' Groovies,
Mantronix,
Faraquet,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Gregory Isaacs,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas.
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.