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 Guyana and from Beijing.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Sexual Harrassment to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Unwound. All the underground hits.
All Warren Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minny Pops 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 rhodes and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Evens record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
cv313,
The Kinks,
Ultra Naté,
Massinfluence,
Neu!,
The Trojans,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Soft Cell,
Khruangbin,
Sex Pistols,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
John Coltrane,
Kas Product,
Marmalade,
Joy Division,
Glambeats Corp.,
Joey Negro,
Grey Daturas,
Eric Copeland,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Technova,
Michelle Simonal,
Kaleidoscope,
Groovy Waters,
Model 500,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Shadows of Knight,
Blossom Toes,
Vainqueur,
Das Ding,
Sugar Minott,
Roy Ayers,
Unwound,
Goldenarms,
The Human League,
Buzzcocks,
New York Dolls,
Mission of Burma,
Young Marble Giants,
Monolake,
The Fall,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Lou Christie,
Dennis Brown,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Music Machine,
Black Flag,
Scion,
The United States of America,
Nik Kershaw,
Crooked Eye,
Audionom,
The Tremeloes,
Throbbing Gristle,
Avey Tare,
Bang On A Can,
Nation of Ulysses,
Pharoah Sanders,
Theoretical Girls,
Porter Ricks, Porter Ricks, Porter Ricks, Porter Ricks.
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.