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 Equatorial Guinea and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Roy Ayers to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Y Pants. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maurizio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Althea and Donna record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Real Kids,
Dual Sessions,
Patti Smith,
Joey Negro,
Ten City,
Urselle,
Lower 48,
Black Bananas,
LL Cool J,
Stereo Dub,
Panda Bear,
The Blues Magoos,
the Sonics,
Dawn Penn,
The Walker Brothers,
Idris Muhammad,
Delta 5,
Rosa Yemen,
Radiohead,
Talk Talk,
Rekid,
The Grass Roots,
Funky Four + One,
The Fugs,
Ornette Coleman,
Delon & Dalcan,
Intrusion,
Eve St. Jones,
In Retrospect,
Minutemen,
Wally Richardson,
Tropical Tobacco,
Yellowson,
Junior Murvin,
Spoonie Gee,
Aaron Thompson,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Prince Buster,
John Foxx,
Eric Copeland,
Rakim,
Barbara Tucker,
Echospace,
David McCallum,
Fatback Band,
Boogie Down Productions,
Yusef Lateef,
The Smoke,
Brick,
Bobby Sherman,
The Mummies,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Kurtis Blow,
Make Up,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Flamin' Groovies,
Gil Scott Heron,
the Human League,
Charles Mingus,
Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs, Boz Scaggs.
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.