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 Niger and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television 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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 clarinet 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 Swell Maps to the grime kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All Byron Stingily tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faraquet record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 an oboe and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Panda Bear record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Malaria!,
Colin Newman,
Hasil Adkins,
The Last Poets,
Gang Starr,
Man Parrish,
Lalo Schifrin,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Beau Brummels,
Tubeway Army,
Sexual Harrassment,
Carl Craig,
Bob Dylan,
Janne Schatter,
Curtis Mayfield,
Drexciya,
Marc Almond,
The Seeds,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Quando Quango,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Chris Corsano,
Alison Limerick,
Johnny Clarke,
Aaron Thompson,
Ken Boothe,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Rhythm & Sound,
Kerrie Biddell,
Kayak,
Ten City,
Easy Going,
James Chance & The Contortions,
10cc,
The Leaves,
Donald Byrd,
Scan 7,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Byron Stingily,
Quadrant,
The Standells,
Man Eating Sloth,
Organ,
Suburban Knight,
Hashim,
Chris & Cosey,
Reuben Wilson,
Yusef Lateef,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Country Teasers,
Dawn Penn,
World's Most,
E-Dancer,
Television Personalities,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Bobby Womack,
The Stooges,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
June Days,
Gil Scott Heron,
Deepchord,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.