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 Mali and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide show in New York.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 John Coltrane to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Q65. All the underground hits.
All Lou Reed tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Starr record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Age Steppers,
Sun Ra,
Moby Grape,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Ultimate Spinach,
KRS-One,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Silicon Teens,
Motorama,
Kerri Chandler,
The Real Kids,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Index,
The Trojans,
AZ,
Jeff Lynne,
Black Flag,
the Soft Cell,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Urselle,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Smiths,
Ossler,
New York Dolls,
MDC,
Faraquet,
Letta Mbulu,
Roxy Music,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Lightning Bolt,
Howard Jones,
Shoche,
Duran Duran,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Jimmy McGriff,
Gabor Szabo,
Flipper,
Barry Ungar,
The Grass Roots,
LL Cool J,
Hashim,
Moebius,
Oneida,
Grauzone,
The Residents,
The Monks,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Half Japanese,
Zero Boys,
D'Angelo,
Bobby Byrd,
Cecil Taylor,
Thompson Twins,
Donald Byrd,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Fuzztones,
Amon Düül II,
Sonic Youth,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt.
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.