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 Taiwan and from Tokyo.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Warsaw to the funk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Golliwogs. All the underground hits.
All Dawn Penn tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gary Puckett & The Union Gap record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blancmange,
The New Christs,
T. Rex,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Knickerbockers,
Wasted Youth,
Echospace,
Subhumans,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Davy DMX,
Adolescents,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Misunderstood,
The Young Rascals,
Wire,
Anakelly,
Aaron Thompson,
Todd Rundgren,
Hoover,
Metal Thangz,
Eden Ahbez,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Scrapy,
Easy Going,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Tubeway Army,
Gabor Szabo,
Lower 48,
Skriet,
Chris & Cosey,
The Human League,
Jacob Miller,
The Busters,
Alice Coltrane,
Magma,
The Motions,
Malaria!,
Black Flag,
Country Teasers,
Lou Christie,
Young Marble Giants,
Pet Shop Boys,
Rod Modell,
New Order,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
June of 44,
Gong,
Zapp,
Technova,
Supertramp,
Fluxion,
Lebanon Hanover,
Gang Gang Dance,
Slick Rick,
the Normal,
Piero Umiliani,
The Modern Lovers,
Bluetip,
Howard Jones,
Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band.
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.