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 Australia and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Tehran.
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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Derrick May to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Talk Talk. All the underground hits.
All The Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kerrie Biddell 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Howard Jones record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Peter and Kerry,
Mary Jane Girls,
Danielle Patucci,
Jandek,
Brand Nubian,
Unwound,
Pylon,
The Selecter,
Unrelated Segments,
Quadrant,
Theoretical Girls,
The Offenders,
Ponytail,
cv313,
Tim Buckley,
Marmalade,
Subhumans,
The Blackbyrds,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Monochrome Set,
Rosa Yemen,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Pharoah Sanders,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Television,
Flipper,
Don Cherry,
Aswad,
Arthur Verocai,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Organ,
The Names,
Byron Stingily,
Amon Düül II,
the Bar-Kays,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Faraquet,
KRS-One,
Crispian St. Peters,
Minnie Riperton,
Eric Copeland,
Intrusion,
Joyce Sims,
Todd Rundgren,
Jerry's Kids,
Lalann,
Matthew Halsall,
Harmonia,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Dual Sessions,
Derrick Morgan,
PIL,
The Index,
Kerri Chandler,
Japan,
The Divine Comedy,
Kaleidoscope,
Soul Sonic Force,
Camouflage,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.