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 Seychelles and from Sao Paulo.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Dirtbombs to the grime 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 Alarm Clocks. All the underground hits.
All The Count Five tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 chamberlin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Selecter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Echospace,
MDC,
David Axelrod,
Nas,
Negative Approach,
Circle Jerks,
Roy Ayers,
Barry Ungar,
The Smoke,
Man Eating Sloth,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Gang of Four,
EPMD,
Icehouse,
Rod Modell,
Ossler,
Groovy Waters,
New Order,
Judy Mowatt,
Aural Exciters,
Girls At Our Best!,
Model 500,
the Fania All-Stars,
Country Teasers,
Infiniti,
Talk Talk,
Pierre Henry,
T. Rex,
The Techniques,
Liliput,
The Real Kids,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Offenders,
Reuben Wilson,
Wally Richardson,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Average White Band,
Kas Product,
Spandau Ballet,
Laurel Aitken,
Yazoo,
Eurythmics,
Excepter,
Rufus Thomas,
Lyres,
Nirvana,
The Saints,
Trumans Water,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Inner City,
Surgeon,
The Misunderstood,
Sight & Sound,
The Barracudas,
Thompson Twins,
Archie Shepp,
Barclay James Harvest,
New Age Steppers,
Eric B and Rakim,
The United States of America,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers, Aloha Tigers.
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.