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 Laos and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 Hong Kong and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Al Stewart to the disco 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 Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish. All the underground hits.
All Q and Not U tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crispy Ambulance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grauzone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sunsets and Hearts,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Kas Product,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Angels of Light,
KRS-One,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Cameo,
Sexual Harrassment,
In Retrospect,
One Last Wish,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Eric Dolphy,
Spandau Ballet,
Rotary Connection,
Robert Hood,
D'Angelo,
Barbara Tucker,
Neil Young,
Franke,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Anthony Braxton,
Maurizio,
Roger Hodgson,
Sun Ra,
Blake Baxter,
Gichy Dan,
Bill Wells,
Vladislav Delay,
Barrington Levy,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Saints,
Cheater Slicks,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
James White and The Blacks,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
B.T. Express,
Mission of Burma,
Subhumans,
the Sonics,
Bobby Sherman,
Livin' Joy,
Sixth Finger,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
a-ha,
Reuben Wilson,
The Martian,
Fela Kuti,
The Move,
Bobby Womack,
Laurel Aitken,
Average White Band,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Absolute Body Control,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Faust,
Patti Smith,
Porter Ricks,
Hardrive,
John Holt,
John Lydon,
The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter, The Selecter.
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.