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 Afghanistan and from Madrid.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 808 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 La Düsseldorf to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Deakin. All the underground hits.
All Lower 48 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Be Bop Deluxe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra Arkestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Panda Bear,
Radio Birdman,
Yusef Lateef,
Byron Stingily,
Sister Nancy,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Crispian St. Peters,
Popol Vuh,
The Moleskins,
Judy Mowatt,
Half Japanese,
Tim Buckley,
The Music Machine,
Spoonie Gee,
The Buckinghams,
Avey Tare,
The Searchers,
ABC,
Vladislav Delay,
a-ha,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
David Axelrod,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Delta 5,
Nik Kershaw,
Letta Mbulu,
Yazoo,
Livin' Joy,
Marmalade,
Ituana,
Ronnie Foster,
Terrestrial Tones,
Dead Boys,
Slave,
Darondo,
Pere Ubu,
Agitation Free,
Piero Umiliani,
Anthony Braxton,
Section 25,
Jandek,
Heaven 17,
The Black Dice,
La Düsseldorf,
The Invisible,
Bobby Womack,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Cure,
The Victims,
The Fall,
DNA,
K-Klass,
Tommy Roe,
The Five Americans,
The Modern Lovers,
Maleditus Sound,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Eric Dolphy,
Warren Ellis,
Dark Day,
Mark Hollis,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape.
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.