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 Romania and from Glasgow.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 chamberlin 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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam 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 Hashim. All the underground hits.
All Eve St. Jones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Holt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Japan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
FM Einheit,
Soulsonic Force,
Negative Approach,
Stiv Bators,
China Crisis,
The Monks,
Fat Boys,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Names,
The Barracudas,
Colin Newman,
Eurythmics,
Depeche Mode,
The Smoke,
Electric Prunes,
Isaac Hayes,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Gong,
The Last Poets,
D'Angelo,
Yellowson,
Danielle Patucci,
Grey Daturas,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Kenny Larkin,
Crooked Eye,
The Real Kids,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Boogie Down Productions,
Public Enemy,
Flash Fearless,
Sound Behaviour,
DJ Sneak,
OOIOO,
The Moleskins,
Davy DMX,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Intrusion,
The Buckinghams,
Slave,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Warsaw,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Glenn Branca,
R.M.O.,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ultra Naté,
Gichy Dan,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Jeff Lynne,
La Düsseldorf,
Pere Ubu,
Loose Ends,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Motorama,
The Fugs,
Magazine,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Bobby Byrd,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
the Normal,
Brothers Johnson,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.