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 Sri Lanka and from Mumbai.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Morten Harket to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Amazonics. All the underground hits.
All Funkadelic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eli Mardock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a MC5 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
London Community Gospel Choir,
Kerri Chandler,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Monochrome Set,
Lee Hazlewood,
Arcadia,
Surgeon,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Sixth Finger,
Nils Olav,
Al Stewart,
Bobby Byrd,
The Smiths,
FM Einheit,
Harmonia,
Moss Icon,
Delon & Dalcan,
Gerry Rafferty,
Young Marble Giants,
The Golliwogs,
Los Fastidios,
Pole,
Nation of Ulysses,
Shoche,
Minor Threat,
AZ,
Spoonie Gee,
Q and Not U,
Amon Düül II,
Quadrant,
Gregory Isaacs,
the Normal,
Scan 7,
The Move,
LL Cool J,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Arthur Verocai,
Ossler,
The Misunderstood,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Graham Central Station,
Johnny Clarke,
Ronnie Foster,
The Moody Blues,
Buzzcocks,
Alphaville,
The American Breed,
Electric Prunes,
Kenny Larkin,
James White and The Blacks,
Sugar Minott,
Gang Green,
Soul II Soul,
Fear,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Residents,
The Fugs,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
X-Ray Spex,
Mary Jane Girls,
Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox.
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.