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 Chad and from Lyon.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1977 at the first Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the güiro 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 LL Cool J to the punk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Bluetip. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Aaron Thompson,
X-Ray Spex,
John Holt,
The Misunderstood,
Das Ding,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Crime,
The New Christs,
Surgeon,
UT,
Althea and Donna,
PIL,
Sugar Minott,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Basic Channel,
Maleditus Sound,
Young Marble Giants,
Amazonics,
Vladislav Delay,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
The Grass Roots,
Don Cherry,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Fela Kuti,
R.M.O.,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Alice Coltrane,
Joy Division,
Aural Exciters,
Agitation Free,
Procol Harum,
Hot Snakes,
Delta 5,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Little Man,
Agent Orange,
U.S. Maple,
the Soft Cell,
Darondo,
the Human League,
Kerri Chandler,
Unrelated Segments,
Wally Richardson,
Scratch Acid,
Moebius,
B.T. Express,
The Monochrome Set,
Jimmy McGriff,
Jacob Miller,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
AZ,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Tremeloes,
Lalo Schifrin,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Skatalites,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges, The Stooges.
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.