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 Spain and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 mellotron 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 Kenny Larkin to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Graham Central Station. All the underground hits.
All Boz Scaggs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roy Ayers Ubiquity record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pierre Henry,
John Cale,
Junior Murvin,
New York Dolls,
Cameo,
Wings,
Rakim,
The Five Americans,
Interpol,
Donald Byrd,
Soul II Soul,
Dennis Brown,
Depeche Mode,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Fluxion,
Second Layer,
The Searchers,
Livin' Joy,
Ultimate Spinach,
Crispian St. Peters,
Massinfluence,
The Seeds,
Al Stewart,
Television,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Harpers Bizarre,
Minutemen,
The Fall,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bobby Byrd,
Black Flag,
The Tremeloes,
Excepter,
The American Breed,
Jeff Lynne,
Youth Brigade,
Skriet,
Yusef Lateef,
Nirvana,
The Moody Blues,
Terry Callier,
Judy Mowatt,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Barracudas,
Jacob Miller,
Joy Division,
These Immortal Souls,
the Swans,
The Gladiators,
Bauhaus,
Cecil Taylor,
The Fuzztones,
Traffic Nightmare,
Procol Harum,
The Smoke,
Marcia Griffiths,
Shoche,
Pantytec, Pantytec, Pantytec, Pantytec.
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.