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 Gabon and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Shoche to the funk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Circle Jerks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Grass Roots record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Chrome,
Pagans,
Ultimate Spinach,
Lou Reed,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Crispian St. Peters,
Bad Manners,
Big Daddy Kane,
Archie Shepp,
Fat Boys,
DJ Style,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jerry's Kids,
Eric B and Rakim,
Blossom Toes,
The Stooges,
Second Layer,
Angry Samoans,
Stiv Bators,
Marc Almond,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Dennis Brown,
The Motions,
Nirvana,
The Slackers,
Sun Ra,
Bob Dylan,
Sex Pistols,
The Flesh Eaters,
Barrington Levy,
Colin Newman,
Public Image Ltd.,
Glambeats Corp.,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Wolf Eyes,
Kas Product,
Althea and Donna,
L. Decosne,
K-Klass,
Country Teasers,
James White and The Blacks,
Bill Near,
Jacques Brel,
Henry Cow,
Pet Shop Boys,
EPMD,
Fela Kuti,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Golliwogs,
Todd Rundgren,
The Happenings,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
the Normal,
Bronski Beat,
Swell Maps,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lee Hazlewood,
MDC,
Dual Sessions,
Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye, Crooked Eye.
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.