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 Vanuatu and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 David Bowie 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 Television Personalities to the grunge 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 The Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Half Japanese tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Magma 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bootsy Collins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
Maurizio,
Thee Headcoats,
Aswad,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Sister Nancy,
Saccharine Trust,
Rhythm & Sound,
Young Marble Giants,
Marshall Jefferson,
Half Japanese,
Johnny Clarke,
Peter and Kerry,
The Cramps,
Circle Jerks,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Real Kids,
MC5,
The Modern Lovers,
Joyce Sims,
Gang Starr,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Kinks,
Rekid,
The Buckinghams,
Roxette,
Alison Limerick,
The Monks,
Erasure,
Lucky Dragons,
Mars,
Grandmaster Flash,
Josef K,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
John Holt,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Moody Blues,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Massinfluence,
Archie Shepp,
Audionom,
Tears for Fears,
Althea and Donna,
The Selecter,
Harmonia,
Roy Ayers,
Nico,
Nation of Ulysses,
Bobby Sherman,
Beasts of Bourbon,
In Retrospect,
Sarah Menescal,
Amon Düül II,
The Blackbyrds,
Pharoah Sanders,
Thompson Twins,
Junior Murvin,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Soft Cell,
Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad, Idris Muhammad.
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.