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 Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 oboe 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 Jimmy McGriff to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Max Romeo. All the underground hits.
All Rapeman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Leaves record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kaleidoscope record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gun Club,
Yaz,
Bobby Sherman,
Mission of Burma,
The Real Kids,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Blancmange,
Wasted Youth,
Joe Smooth,
Camberwell Now,
a-ha,
Half Japanese,
Agent Orange,
Eddi Front,
Procol Harum,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Groovy Waters,
The Five Americans,
Grauzone,
The Tremeloes,
Babytalk,
Aural Exciters,
MC5,
Janne Schatter,
Unrelated Segments,
Essential Logic,
Flash Fearless,
Yellowson,
The Evens,
Eurythmics,
X-Ray Spex,
Sonic Youth,
Joy Division,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Pretty Things,
The Moleskins,
Minnie Riperton,
Can,
Mary Jane Girls,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Panda Bear,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Intrusion,
The Standells,
Scott Walker,
The Invisible,
Rotary Connection,
Sarah Menescal,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Gap Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
The Barracudas,
Fatback Band,
Minutemen,
Marc Almond,
Tres Demented,
Zero Boys,
Barry Ungar,
The Vogues,
Jeff Mills,
Godley & Creme,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.