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 Ecuador and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Johannesburg.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Gabor Szabo to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Second Layer. All the underground hits.
All Boredoms 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 jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Average White Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young,
Rufus Thomas,
The Zeros,
Bang On A Can,
Jacob Miller,
Scrapy,
Tim Buckley,
the Fania All-Stars,
JFA,
Maleditus Sound,
Con Funk Shun,
La Düsseldorf,
Qualms,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Black Moon,
Rod Modell,
Franke,
Easy Going,
Neu!,
T.S.O.L.,
Blancmange,
Royal Trux,
Rotary Connection,
Amon Düül II,
Kenny Larkin,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Porter Ricks,
Dual Sessions,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Gap Band,
The Moleskins,
Fluxion,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Music Machine,
Yusef Lateef,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Velvet Underground,
Kaleidoscope,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Minor Threat,
Stockholm Monsters,
Niagra,
Delta 5,
Robert Hood,
The United States of America,
Nico,
The Star Department,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Spoonie Gee,
Mark Hollis,
Eli Mardock,
Pierre Henry,
Underground Resistance,
Kayak,
Can,
Ultra Naté,
Joyce Sims,
Excepter,
The Doors,
Unwound,
Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen.
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.