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 Belgium and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 DeepChord presents Echospace to the techno 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 Standells. All the underground hits.
All The Misunderstood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pierre Henry record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gregory Isaacs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slick Rick,
Sister Nancy,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Skaos,
Crime,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Dawn Penn,
Eli Mardock,
Thee Headcoats,
Skriet,
Pet Shop Boys,
H. Thieme,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Barry Ungar,
Soul II Soul,
Michelle Simonal,
Thompson Twins,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Last Poets,
The Fall,
Marcia Griffiths,
Tres Demented,
Soulsonic Force,
Neil Young,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Bobby Womack,
Fad Gadget,
Nik Kershaw,
the Bar-Kays,
The Evens,
Scan 7,
Minnie Riperton,
Kurtis Blow,
Lyres,
Junior Murvin,
Ohio Players,
Aswad,
Silicon Teens,
The Shadows of Knight,
the Slits,
Aural Exciters,
Aloha Tigers,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Victims,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Model 500,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Tomorrow,
The Kinks,
Robert Wyatt,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Black Bananas,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Kaleidoscope,
Jeru the Damaja,
Procol Harum,
Dennis Brown,
X-101, X-101, X-101, X-101.
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.