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 Namibia and from Accra.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Skatalites to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Standells. All the underground hits.
All Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lightning Bolt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rotary Connection record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Boogie Down Productions,
Whodini,
The Alarm Clocks,
Gang Green,
The Fuzztones,
Clear Light,
Susan Cadogan,
The Young Rascals,
Johnny Clarke,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Brand Nubian,
Max Romeo,
The Names,
Stetsasonic,
Sound Behaviour,
Scott Walker,
Leonard Cohen,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Lebanon Hanover,
Stiv Bators,
Bad Manners,
Idris Muhammad,
Peter & Gordon,
R.M.O.,
Roxy Music,
World's Most,
The Slits,
Byron Stingily,
Michelle Simonal,
Monolake,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Electric Prunes,
Boredoms,
Pharoah Sanders,
the Association,
The Smiths,
Matthew Halsall,
Traffic Nightmare,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Rufus Thomas,
Angry Samoans,
Mary Jane Girls,
D'Angelo,
Ten City,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Fela Kuti,
The Seeds,
Porter Ricks,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Black Bananas,
Hot Snakes,
Arthur Verocai,
Alice Coltrane,
Ossler,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Bush Tetras,
Monks,
UT,
Albert Ayler,
Altered Images,
Crime,
Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic, Essential Logic.
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.