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 South Sudan and from Philadelphia.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Manfred Mann's Earth Band to the funk 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 Fela Kuti. All the underground hits.
All Alice Coltrane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quantec record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Slave record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Simply Red,
Shuggie Otis,
Suicide,
The Moleskins,
Blake Baxter,
The J.B.'s,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Ronnie Foster,
Carl Craig,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Cabaret Voltaire,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Dark Day,
Traffic Nightmare,
Rotary Connection,
The Barracudas,
The Black Dice,
PIL,
Avey Tare,
Bill Near,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Normal,
Yazoo,
Bob Dylan,
Warren Ellis,
Motorama,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Nick Fraelich,
Inner City,
Ludus,
Wally Richardson,
Theoretical Girls,
Patti Smith,
Deepchord,
Jacques Brel,
Scan 7,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Janne Schatter,
Nico,
The Doors,
Aswad,
The Gladiators,
Lyres,
Tommy Roe,
Lakeside,
Pole,
Goldenarms,
Black Bananas,
Marcia Griffiths,
Anthony Braxton,
Mad Mike,
Neil Young,
Yusef Lateef,
Sun Ra,
Das Ding,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Popol Vuh,
Aloha Tigers,
Excepter,
Nik Kershaw,
Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco.
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.