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 Italy and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Fela Kuti to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Cal Tjader. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun City Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
Bobby Womack,
Masters at Work,
Flipper,
Nick Fraelich,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Erykah Badu,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Pet Shop Boys,
Bang On A Can,
Audionom,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Bad Manners,
Aural Exciters,
Smog,
Dennis Brown,
The Gories,
DNA,
Al Stewart,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Brand Nubian,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Minor Threat,
Monks,
Lower 48,
Yellowson,
Rod Modell,
Buzzcocks,
New Age Steppers,
Donny Hathaway,
Black Moon,
The Last Poets,
Avey Tare,
Alphaville,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Big Daddy Kane,
Hot Snakes,
Curtis Mayfield,
Sarah Menescal,
Rufus Thomas,
T. Rex,
Zapp,
Jawbox,
Kaleidoscope,
E-Dancer,
Eden Ahbez,
Intrusion,
Khruangbin,
Motorama,
The Dave Clark Five,
Duran Duran,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Sister Nancy,
Silicon Teens,
Scott Walker,
UT,
Mandrill,
Skarface,
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan.
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.