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 Monaco and from London.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 sitar 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 Henry Cow to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 a-ha tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mary Jane Girls record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Subhumans,
Surgeon,
Lakeside,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Joe Finger,
Bob Dylan,
La Düsseldorf,
The Durutti Column,
Anthony Braxton,
Marshall Jefferson,
the Bar-Kays,
Alice Coltrane,
Eden Ahbez,
Flamin' Groovies,
Public Image Ltd.,
Derrick Morgan,
Minnie Riperton,
Ohio Players,
Camouflage,
The Zeros,
Minny Pops,
Lyres,
Warsaw,
Glenn Branca,
Eric Dolphy,
Kaleidoscope,
Jandek,
Lungfish,
Monolake,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Marvin Gaye,
Juan Atkins,
Bobby Womack,
Nils Olav,
Bill Wells,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lebanon Hanover,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Supertramp,
Soft Cell,
Iggy Pop,
The Vogues,
LL Cool J,
Sexual Harrassment,
Scott Walker,
8 Eyed Spy,
Amazonics,
Q65,
Heaven 17,
Laurel Aitken,
Delon & Dalcan,
Eric B and Rakim,
June of 44,
Q and Not U,
One Last Wish,
Fluxion,
Ralphi Rosario,
Section 25, Section 25, Section 25, Section 25.
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.