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 Belarus and from Bremen.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Dorothy Ashby to the techno 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 The Fuzztones. All the underground hits.
All Black Bananas tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 a güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shoche,
Ice-T,
Blake Baxter,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Johnny Osbourne,
Mo-Dettes,
Popol Vuh,
Groovy Waters,
T. Rex,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Henry Cow,
Archie Shepp,
ABBA,
Main Source,
Rekid,
Wasted Youth,
Sarah Menescal,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Pet Shop Boys,
Reagan Youth,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Mary Jane Girls,
Cecil Taylor,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lucky Dragons,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Moleskins,
Funky Four + One,
Jimmy McGriff,
Robert Wyatt,
The Monochrome Set,
A Certain Ratio,
The Move,
Kayak,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Angry Samoans,
Quantec,
The Index,
Maleditus Sound,
Jacob Miller,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Delon & Dalcan,
Dawn Penn,
Underground Resistance,
Donny Hathaway,
The United States of America,
The Cure,
K-Klass,
Derrick Morgan,
The Flesh Eaters,
Cymande,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Scion,
The Fire Engines,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Sun City Girls,
Second Layer,
AZ,
Ludus,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.