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 Pakistan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 linndrum 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 James Chance & The Contortions 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 Harmonia. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wings 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Siglo XX record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Kas Product,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Bang On A Can,
EPMD,
Nick Fraelich,
Patti Smith,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Lightning Bolt,
The Vogues,
Ronnie Foster,
Organ,
Brothers Johnson,
Reuben Wilson,
The Black Dice,
The New Christs,
Cameo,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Leonard Cohen,
Khruangbin,
Dawn Penn,
Hoover,
The Doors,
Gang Gang Dance,
Letta Mbulu,
Faraquet,
Jerry's Kids,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Chrome,
Black Bananas,
Dorothy Ashby,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
John Holt,
Nas,
Barry Ungar,
The Selecter,
Simply Red,
Fluxion,
The Raincoats,
Little Man,
Albert Ayler,
The Busters,
Minutemen,
Warren Ellis,
New Order,
Archie Shepp,
D'Angelo,
Q and Not U,
The Slackers,
Radiopuhelimet,
8 Eyed Spy,
Spandau Ballet,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Rakim,
David Bowie,
Scrapy,
Skarface,
The Index,
Easy Going,
Piero Umiliani,
Bill Near,
Altered Images,
The Divine Comedy,
Howard Jones,
Unwound, Unwound, Unwound, Unwound.
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.