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 Sierra Leone and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Flipper to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Loose Ends. All the underground hits.
All Gabor Szabo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Victims 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Essential Logic 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?
New York Dolls,
Yazoo,
Mark Hollis,
Motorama,
Minor Threat,
Ludus,
The Associates,
Pylon,
Lee Hazlewood,
Cal Tjader,
Whodini,
Babytalk,
the Swans,
John Coltrane,
Mission of Burma,
Joensuu 1685,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Desert Stars,
Eric Copeland,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
EPMD,
Gang Green,
Scrapy,
The Techniques,
Agitation Free,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Brass Construction,
The Grass Roots,
Sällskapet,
Moebius,
The Divine Comedy,
Angry Samoans,
Don Cherry,
Thee Headcoats,
Camberwell Now,
The Index,
Mo-Dettes,
Radiopuhelimet,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Infiniti,
H. Thieme,
T.S.O.L.,
Q and Not U,
Crooked Eye,
The Golliwogs,
OOIOO,
Sly & The Family Stone,
the Bar-Kays,
Blake Baxter,
Archie Shepp,
The Mojo Men,
Pharoah Sanders,
Magazine,
The Velvet Underground,
Nils Olav,
The Buckinghams,
Jandek,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Shadows of Knight,
Eve St. Jones,
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow.
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.