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 Nepal and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 Manchester and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 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 Aswad to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 The Shadows of Knight. All the underground hits.
All Magma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rotary Connection record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Selector Dub Narcotic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soft Machine,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Guru Guru,
Lindisfarne,
Kevin Saunderson,
Terrestrial Tones,
H. Thieme,
Ten City,
Steve Hackett,
Janne Schatter,
Dead Boys,
Jandek,
Gil Scott Heron,
Kurtis Blow,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Lou Reed,
Althea and Donna,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Peter & Gordon,
Rites of Spring,
The Golliwogs,
Albert Ayler,
Animal Collective,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Thee Headcoats,
The Cure,
LL Cool J,
Technova,
Dark Day,
The Fortunes,
the Association,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Eric Dolphy,
Fear,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Charles Mingus,
Lakeside,
Cymande,
Lower 48,
Junior Murvin,
Nik Kershaw,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Cheater Slicks,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Second Layer,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Wasted Youth,
Smog,
Scott Walker,
The Gun Club,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ossler,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
John Coltrane,
Donald Byrd,
Lightning Bolt,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Sisters of Mercy,
New York Dolls,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.