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 Romania and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 guitar 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 H. Thieme to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Guru Guru. All the underground hits.
All Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Kinks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Marcia Griffiths record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang of Four,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Mantronix,
Cecil Taylor,
Underground Resistance,
Ronnie Foster,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Slackers,
Ohio Players,
Flipper,
Bobby Womack,
New Order,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Sam Rivers,
Terrestrial Tones,
In Retrospect,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Flash Fearless,
Siglo XX,
Nation of Ulysses,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Curtis Mayfield,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Archie Shepp,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sandy B,
Cameo,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Busters,
Surgeon,
Q65,
Jacques Brel,
The Angels of Light,
Jeff Lynne,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Mars,
Hasil Adkins,
Joe Smooth,
Junior Murvin,
The Misunderstood,
Toni Rubio,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Jerry Gold Smith,
James White and The Blacks,
Bauhaus,
Electric Prunes,
Fatback Band,
The Selecter,
Pantaleimon,
Black Moon,
The United States of America,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Erykah Badu,
Swans,
Barrington Levy,
Roxette,
Crispian St. Peters,
DNA,
Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté, Ultra Naté.
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.