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 Pakistan and from Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the snare 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 The Gap Band to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Fear. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Swans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Dead C record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Duran Duran,
Junior Murvin,
The Doobie Brothers,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
David McCallum,
Franke,
Popol Vuh,
The Searchers,
Reagan Youth,
Blossom Toes,
Grandmaster Flash,
Barbara Tucker,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Technova,
Josef K,
Frankie Knuckles,
Blake Baxter,
Sonny Sharrock,
Andrew Hill,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
kango's stein massive,
Erykah Badu,
CMW,
X-102,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Human League,
Stiv Bators,
Rufus Thomas,
Parry Music,
Eden Ahbez,
New Order,
The Neon Judgement,
The Dirtbombs,
Aloha Tigers,
Nas,
Niagra,
Deadbeat,
Severed Heads,
Amon Düül,
ABC,
PIL,
The Buckinghams,
Marc Almond,
Kenny Larkin,
The Fire Engines,
Ice-T,
The Gories,
Yazoo,
The Motions,
Bobby Byrd,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Faust,
Rakim,
Altered Images,
Bobby Sherman,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Slackers,
Mark Hollis,
Pere Ubu,
Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water, Trumans Water.
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.