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 Tuvalu and from Spokane.
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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Index to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Urselle. All the underground hits.
All The Pretty Things tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Gap Band 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thompson Twins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Altered Images,
Hot Snakes,
UT,
Eden Ahbez,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Minor Threat,
Kerrie Biddell,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bob Dylan,
Aaron Thompson,
Shoche,
The Cowsills,
X-101,
DJ Sneak,
LL Cool J,
Can,
Ponytail,
Deadbeat,
The Skatalites,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eli Mardock,
Tres Demented,
The Motions,
Glenn Branca,
Glambeats Corp.,
Nik Kershaw,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Fad Gadget,
Marmalade,
Aswad,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Essential Logic,
The Litter,
Adolescents,
Janne Schatter,
Roy Ayers,
the Bar-Kays,
Procol Harum,
Tropical Tobacco,
F. McDonald,
Peter and Kerry,
Yusef Lateef,
La Düsseldorf,
the Sonics,
The Dead C,
Public Image Ltd.,
Slave,
Tomorrow,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Man Eating Sloth,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Martian,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Black Bananas,
Thompson Twins,
Frankie Knuckles,
Loose Ends,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Pet Shop Boys,
Drive Like Jehu,
Rhythm & Sound,
Rosa Yemen,
Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry.
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.