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 Antigua 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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Davy DMX to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Malaria!. All the underground hits.
All Index tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Men They Couldn't Hang record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Altered Images record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
LL Cool J,
Trumans Water,
Kevin Saunderson,
Sonny Sharrock,
Ten City,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Kurtis Blow,
The Seeds,
Lindisfarne,
Dennis Brown,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Matthew Bourne,
Inner City,
Stetsasonic,
Main Source,
Bush Tetras,
AZ,
Radiohead,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Lungfish,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Ronnie Foster,
Robert Görl,
Theoretical Girls,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Erykah Badu,
Sex Pistols,
Lakeside,
Eve St. Jones,
Mary Jane Girls,
Yazoo,
Traffic Nightmare,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Moebius,
Gerry Rafferty,
Jerry Gold Smith,
the Sonics,
Make Up,
Black Pus,
The Gap Band,
Tubeway Army,
Outsiders,
Wally Richardson,
Pulsallama,
Isaac Hayes,
Hoover,
Graham Central Station,
Suicide,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sparks,
Pole,
Pylon,
Arthur Verocai,
Darondo,
Simply Red,
Eric B and Rakim,
Lalann,
The Cowsills,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Associates,
Iggy Pop,
Faust, Faust, Faust, Faust.
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.