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 Turkmenistan and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Tehran.
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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Erykah Badu to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Ronnie Foster. All the underground hits.
All Alton Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Skatalites record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Terry Callier record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Groovy Waters,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Electric Prunes,
Jacob Miller,
Robert Wyatt,
Ossler,
Skaos,
Minnie Riperton,
The Count Five,
The Shadows of Knight,
Slave,
The Happenings,
The Golliwogs,
Lindisfarne,
Ornette Coleman,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Bill Wells,
Laurel Aitken,
Al Stewart,
Outsiders,
The Fugs,
Erykah Badu,
The Wake,
Toni Rubio,
Talk Talk,
The Sound,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Durutti Column,
Aloha Tigers,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Black Pus,
The Saints,
Cecil Taylor,
Absolute Body Control,
Iggy Pop,
Delta 5,
Swans,
Swell Maps,
Johnny Clarke,
Marcia Griffiths,
Mandrill,
The Young Rascals,
The Moody Blues,
Bobby Byrd,
H. Thieme,
Roxette,
Crooked Eye,
Can,
Pharoah Sanders,
Monks,
the Germs,
Peter and Kerry,
James White and The Blacks,
Saccharine Trust,
Albert Ayler,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Adolescents,
Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D, Schoolly D.
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.