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 Georgia and from New York.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Maurizio to the disco 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 Man Eating Sloth. All the underground hits.
All The Fugs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lightning Bolt 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Rakim,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Clear Light,
Slick Rick,
Saccharine Trust,
The Golliwogs,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Doors,
Throbbing Gristle,
Cecil Taylor,
Negative Approach,
The Blackbyrds,
One Last Wish,
Outsiders,
Gong,
Glenn Branca,
Ultra Naté,
Groovy Waters,
Radiohead,
Deepchord,
The Motions,
Cheater Slicks,
the Sonics,
Nico,
Mars,
R.M.O.,
Quadrant,
Dennis Brown,
The Searchers,
Ponytail,
John Coltrane,
Piero Umiliani,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Scientists,
Mission of Burma,
Flipper,
The Music Machine,
Wally Richardson,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Motorama,
Ice-T,
Maleditus Sound,
Oblivians,
Cameo,
Electric Prunes,
Vainqueur,
Blake Baxter,
Stiv Bators,
Pulsallama,
Prince Buster,
Chris Corsano,
JFA,
Ralphi Rosario,
Traffic Nightmare,
48th St. Collective,
The Count Five,
Yellowson,
Ossler,
Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Lynne.
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.