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 the UAE and from Glasgow.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Alice Coltrane to the electroclash 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 Sex Pistols. All the underground hits.
All Nation of Ulysses tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 a sitar and a harpsichord 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 snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nas,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Pagans,
Alton Ellis,
Ronnie Foster,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Yazoo,
The J.B.'s,
Gabor Szabo,
Severed Heads,
Flash Fearless,
Jeru the Damaja,
Scion,
The Evens,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Offenders,
Essential Logic,
Audionom,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lucky Dragons,
The Smiths,
Cameo,
Rites of Spring,
Nik Kershaw,
The Divine Comedy,
The Associates,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Bad Manners,
Jacques Brel,
Dark Day,
Harpers Bizarre,
Roy Ayers,
Oblivians,
World's Most,
Fugazi,
FM Einheit,
The Barracudas,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Fire Engines,
Fat Boys,
Donny Hathaway,
Wasted Youth,
Matthew Bourne,
Monolake,
Carl Craig,
Slick Rick,
Altered Images,
Crash Course in Science,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Ohio Players,
In Retrospect,
Tom Boy,
A Certain Ratio,
Cecil Taylor,
Subhumans,
Half Japanese,
Blancmange,
Faraquet,
Main Source, Main Source, Main Source, Main Source.
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.