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 Sweden and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the marimba 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 Albert Ayler to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Hasil Adkins. All the underground hits.
All Major Organ And The Adding Machine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every F. McDonald 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rakim record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tubeway Army,
The Dirtbombs,
Tim Buckley,
Dennis Brown,
Spoonie Gee,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Carl Craig,
Connie Case,
The Sound,
H. Thieme,
8 Eyed Spy,
Marvin Gaye,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Groovy Waters,
Banda Bassotti,
The Slits,
In Retrospect,
Lower 48,
Nation of Ulysses,
Animal Collective,
Anthony Braxton,
Crispy Ambulance,
Robert Görl,
Soul II Soul,
Flash Fearless,
Alison Limerick,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The United States of America,
Gregory Isaacs,
Smog,
Black Sheep,
Grandmaster Flash,
This Heat,
The Last Poets,
Cymande,
Make Up,
Bootsy Collins,
The J.B.'s,
The Techniques,
Maleditus Sound,
Grey Daturas,
Tears for Fears,
Mandrill,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Agitation Free,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Spandau Ballet,
Bobby Womack,
Unwound,
Letta Mbulu,
Oblivians,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
EPMD,
Moss Icon,
Infiniti,
Minutemen,
Thompson Twins,
The Invisible,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Pagans,
Slave,
Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt.
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.