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 Sierra Leone 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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 mellotron 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 Shadows of Knight to the grime 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 Toni Rubio. All the underground hits.
All Lou Reed & Metallica tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Hood 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Leaves record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Second Layer,
The Velvet Underground,
Nik Kershaw,
Zero Boys,
These Immortal Souls,
Connie Case,
The Birthday Party,
Derrick May,
Schoolly D,
Bad Manners,
PIL,
Y Pants,
The Last Poets,
Cameo,
Hoover,
Scientists,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Litter,
The Cure,
Tommy Roe,
Archie Shepp,
Anakelly,
The Moody Blues,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Eve St. Jones,
the Sonics,
The Invisible,
Flamin' Groovies,
Ohio Players,
X-Ray Spex,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The J.B.'s,
Skriet,
Pierre Henry,
Crispy Ambulance,
Pantaleimon,
Nas,
Shuggie Otis,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Skaos,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Ronnie Foster,
Joy Division,
This Heat,
Flash Fearless,
Neil Young,
Lungfish,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The United States of America,
The Happenings,
Althea and Donna,
the Swans,
Khruangbin,
Tropical Tobacco,
Barrington Levy,
Steve Hackett,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Silicon Teens,
Magma,
Main Source,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Saccharine Trust,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.