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 Botswana and from Mexico City.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and London.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the organ 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 Groovy Waters to the rap 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 Beasts of Bourbon. All the underground hits.
All Tim Buckley tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Bourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an oboe and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Oneida,
Urselle,
The Names,
Model 500,
Donny Hathaway,
Warsaw,
Grauzone,
Black Bananas,
The United States of America,
T. Rex,
Skarface,
Soul II Soul,
Darondo,
Symarip,
Robert Hood,
Connie Case,
Marc Almond,
Rhythm & Sound,
Hot Snakes,
Youth Brigade,
Carl Craig,
Joe Finger,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Aswad,
Ultra Naté,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Boz Scaggs,
Pulsallama,
the Slits,
Rosa Yemen,
Crooked Eye,
Rakim,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Music Machine,
The Slackers,
Lower 48,
Lindisfarne,
The Five Americans,
Archie Shepp,
Slave,
Marshall Jefferson,
Japan,
the Germs,
Joe Smooth,
Hashim,
In Retrospect,
Q65,
Gregory Isaacs,
Donald Byrd,
Soft Machine,
The Invisible,
Matthew Bourne,
Barclay James Harvest,
Jawbox,
Alton Ellis,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Babytalk,
Judy Mowatt,
Skaos,
CMW,
The Zeros,
Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay.
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.