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 Israel and from Houston.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 clarinet 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 Johnny Osbourne to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Joe Finger. All the underground hits.
All Spoonie Gee tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roger Hodgson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Boredoms record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Swell Maps,
The Red Krayola,
Eddi Front,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Evens,
Grandmaster Flash,
Sexual Harrassment,
Soul II Soul,
Gang Gang Dance,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Dark Day,
The Moleskins,
Scrapy,
The Barracudas,
Swans,
Godley & Creme,
Funky Four + One,
Lyres,
Rites of Spring,
X-102,
Whodini,
Aswad,
Agent Orange,
Drexciya,
Kevin Saunderson,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
John Holt,
Graham Central Station,
John Foxx,
Infiniti,
Pere Ubu,
Sight & Sound,
Can,
Arab on Radar,
Absolute Body Control,
The Star Department,
The Angels of Light,
Amon Düül II,
Accadde A,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Lalann,
Fela Kuti,
Isaac Hayes,
Marmalade,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Avey Tare,
The Walker Brothers,
Roy Ayers,
Hot Snakes,
Eurythmics,
Ultravox,
Wally Richardson,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Unwound,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Gregory Isaacs,
Joe Finger,
Television Personalities,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.