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 East Timor and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Jakarta.
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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 rock 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 Barclay James Harvest. All the underground hits.
All Skarface tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lucky Dragons record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 an oboe and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oppenheimer Analysis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Junior Murvin,
Monolake,
Gong,
Suicide,
Bizarre Inc.,
Kas Product,
Soul Sonic Force,
Tres Demented,
Wings,
Mark Hollis,
Eli Mardock,
The Invisible,
Ossler,
X-102,
The Fire Engines,
Desert Stars,
Soul II Soul,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Shoche,
Quando Quango,
Rapeman,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Gap Band,
These Immortal Souls,
Severed Heads,
Marine Girls,
Amazonics,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Fortunes,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Harry Pussy,
The Beau Brummels,
Jeru the Damaja,
Stockholm Monsters,
Anakelly,
Oneida,
Scott Walker,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Reuben Wilson,
Sun City Girls,
the Germs,
Eddi Front,
Ronnie Foster,
Loose Ends,
The Techniques,
Eve St. Jones,
Cluster,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Con Funk Shun,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Second Layer,
Arcadia,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
the Soft Cell,
The Moody Blues,
The Red Krayola,
Jimmy McGriff,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Vogues,
Prince Buster,
Lindisfarne,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Byron Stingily,
Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers.
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.