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 Cambodia and from Tokyo.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the güiro 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 Traffic Nightmare to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Gang Starr. All the underground hits.
All Ronan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sad Lovers and Giants record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Agitation Free record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crime,
Eric Dolphy,
The Gap Band,
In Retrospect,
Wasted Youth,
Essential Logic,
Brick,
The Monochrome Set,
U.S. Maple,
Rufus Thomas,
Chris & Cosey,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Boz Scaggs,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Cure,
Dawn Penn,
Magazine,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Bobby Womack,
Jandek,
Lower 48,
Sister Nancy,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Kinks,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Pretty Things,
James Chance & The Contortions,
New York Dolls,
Q65,
Brand Nubian,
Rekid,
The New Christs,
Kerrie Biddell,
the Slits,
The Golliwogs,
Heaven 17,
Drive Like Jehu,
Curtis Mayfield,
New Age Steppers,
Scratch Acid,
Rapeman,
Technova,
Big Daddy Kane,
Deepchord,
Pylon,
Michelle Simonal,
Robert Hood,
Patti Smith,
Kurtis Blow,
Theoretical Girls,
Jimmy McGriff,
Black Flag,
The Doors,
Bluetip,
Thompson Twins,
Hashim,
The Martian,
Chris Corsano,
John Lydon,
The Moleskins,
The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings, The Happenings.
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.