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 Georgia and from Spokane.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Joe Smooth to the rap 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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 clarinet and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joey Negro record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pulsallama,
Soul Sonic Force,
Pole,
Siglo XX,
The Gladiators,
Trumans Water,
Infiniti,
Ken Boothe,
Rufus Thomas,
the Slits,
Electric Prunes,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Schoolly D,
Morten Harket,
Audionom,
Maleditus Sound,
Brick,
Skaos,
10cc,
Fugazi,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Velvet Underground,
Yusef Lateef,
The Selecter,
Rakim,
Joe Finger,
the Sonics,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Blues Magoos,
Pylon,
Excepter,
Banda Bassotti,
Massinfluence,
The Gun Club,
Gang of Four,
Guru Guru,
Kurtis Blow,
Mark Hollis,
Danielle Patucci,
The Smiths,
Lou Christie,
Agent Orange,
Masters at Work,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Blackbyrds,
Mission of Burma,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Simply Red,
T. Rex,
James White and The Blacks,
Arthur Verocai,
Bizarre Inc.,
Bill Near,
AZ,
Patti Smith,
Lyres,
June of 44,
The New Christs,
Alice Coltrane,
Skriet, Skriet, Skriet, Skriet.
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.