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 Djibouti and from Edmonton.
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 1966 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Glasgow.
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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the organ 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Rites of Spring. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra Arkestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scrapy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aural Exciters,
Zero Boys,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The United States of America,
Tubeway Army,
Banda Bassotti,
Erykah Badu,
Sex Pistols,
Ronan,
Althea and Donna,
Kevin Saunderson,
Index,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Sun City Girls,
Judy Mowatt,
Sarah Menescal,
Faraquet,
John Lydon,
Pet Shop Boys,
Kaleidoscope,
Quadrant,
Vainqueur,
Marshall Jefferson,
Scrapy,
Curtis Mayfield,
Minor Threat,
Man Parrish,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Pretty Things,
the Human League,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Rakim,
Cal Tjader,
Agitation Free,
Roy Ayers,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Unrelated Segments,
Silicon Teens,
Subhumans,
Sight & Sound,
The Human League,
Accadde A,
David Axelrod,
Sun Ra,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
John Cale,
Carl Craig,
Rotary Connection,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Bananas,
Nico,
The Trojans,
Peter and Kerry,
Andrew Hill,
The Happenings,
Yellowson,
Dorothy Ashby,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Dawn Penn,
Black Flag,
The Wake, The Wake, The Wake, The Wake.
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.