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 Denmark and from Lagos.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Mandrill to the jazz 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 Robert Hood. All the underground hits.
All Echo & the Bunnymen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Youth Brigade 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tommy Roe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
8 Eyed Spy,
The Monks,
The Martian,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Tres Demented,
Desert Stars,
Porter Ricks,
Ten City,
The Five Americans,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Smiths,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Faust,
Robert Wyatt,
The Raincoats,
Bauhaus,
Bluetip,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Mary Jane Girls,
Eddi Front,
Dorothy Ashby,
Buzzcocks,
Slick Rick,
Connie Case,
Lindisfarne,
The Human League,
Gang Starr,
Accadde A,
X-102,
Lalann,
Little Man,
E-Dancer,
Howard Jones,
New York Dolls,
Sound Behaviour,
Ultimate Spinach,
John Cale,
The Invisible,
World's Most,
Circle Jerks,
Black Sheep,
The Kinks,
Das Ding,
Negative Approach,
The Dirtbombs,
The Mojo Men,
Blancmange,
Tubeway Army,
The United States of America,
The Motions,
Half Japanese,
Main Source,
Popol Vuh,
Althea and Donna,
The Fire Engines,
Pharoah Sanders,
Intrusion,
Interpol,
Scan 7,
Yusef Lateef,
The Fugs,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.