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 Liberia and from Bremen.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Pole to the grime 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 Barry Ungar. All the underground hits.
All Moebius tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Techniques record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 a güiro and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Outsiders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric B and Rakim,
The Skatalites,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Half Japanese,
Tomorrow,
Pagans,
The United States of America,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Sun City Girls,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Trumans Water,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Tropical Tobacco,
Neu!,
Skaos,
The Velvet Underground,
Model 500,
Television,
Tommy Roe,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Sound,
In Retrospect,
Underground Resistance,
Vladislav Delay,
Harmonia,
Kenny Larkin,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Sister Nancy,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Man Eating Sloth,
Metal Thangz,
Gong,
Silicon Teens,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Fugs,
Alton Ellis,
The Smiths,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Steve Hackett,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Simply Red,
Darondo,
Television Personalities,
Scott Walker,
EPMD,
Arab on Radar,
Byron Stingily,
Todd Rundgren,
Dorothy Ashby,
Cheater Slicks,
Lou Reed,
Wings,
Sonic Youth,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Smoke,
The Last Poets,
Gabor Szabo,
Warren Ellis,
David Bowie,
This Heat, This Heat, This Heat, This Heat.
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.