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 Taiwan and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Bremen.
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 harpsichord 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 Judy Mowatt to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Eyeless In Gaza tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Goldenarms record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cecil Taylor record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soul II Soul,
Aloha Tigers,
Connie Case,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Mummies,
K-Klass,
Minnie Riperton,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Sixth Finger,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sun Ra,
In Retrospect,
The American Breed,
Silicon Teens,
Matthew Bourne,
Jacques Brel,
Nico,
Liliput,
Alison Limerick,
The Real Kids,
Chrome,
Todd Terry,
The Monochrome Set,
June of 44,
The Happenings,
Brick,
Marvin Gaye,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Motions,
June Days,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Zapp,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eli Mardock,
Juan Atkins,
Blossom Toes,
Faraquet,
the Swans,
Kurtis Blow,
Sällskapet,
Arthur Verocai,
Boredoms,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Toni Rubio,
Ultra Naté,
Barclay James Harvest,
Barry Ungar,
Niagra,
Procol Harum,
Spoonie Gee,
Bauhaus,
The Fire Engines,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Goldenarms,
Clear Light,
The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five, The Count Five.
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.