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 Chad and from Hong Kong.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Beijing.
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 güiro 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 The Knickerbockers to the punk 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 Crispy Ambulance. All the underground hits.
All Minor Threat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ice-T record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 guitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Knickerbockers,
David Bowie,
Donny Hathaway,
Magazine,
Malaria!,
Lalo Schifrin,
Intrusion,
Al Stewart,
Sonny Sharrock,
John Foxx,
The Fire Engines,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Motorama,
Niagra,
Piero Umiliani,
The Modern Lovers,
The United States of America,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lucky Dragons,
Steve Hackett,
Donald Byrd,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Camberwell Now,
Ludus,
The Dead C,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cluster,
Camouflage,
The Fortunes,
Kevin Saunderson,
Tomorrow,
10cc,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Barracudas,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Freddie Wadling,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Vladislav Delay,
Sugar Minott,
The Doobie Brothers,
Neil Young,
Althea and Donna,
Lou Christie,
Mr. Review,
Lakeside,
Essential Logic,
Curtis Mayfield,
This Heat,
Gang Green,
Sällskapet,
A Certain Ratio,
Ronnie Foster,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Surgeon,
Delta 5,
The Fall,
Sparks,
Slick Rick,
Todd Rundgren,
Average White Band,
Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef, Yusef Lateef.
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.