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 Grenada and from Lille.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Johannesburg.
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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Gang Starr to the disco kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Country Joe & The Fish. All the underground hits.
All Ten City tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ash Ra Tempel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Association,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Country Teasers,
Mr. Review,
ABC,
Aaron Thompson,
The Mojo Men,
The Real Kids,
Heaven 17,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
In Retrospect,
Donald Byrd,
OOIOO,
Junior Murvin,
Masters at Work,
Index,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Dead C,
The Golliwogs,
Sam Rivers,
Camouflage,
Throbbing Gristle,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Simply Red,
The Cowsills,
Stereo Dub,
Bad Manners,
Funky Four + One,
Johnny Clarke,
F. McDonald,
Colin Newman,
The Monochrome Set,
David McCallum,
Marvin Gaye,
Aloha Tigers,
DJ Sneak,
Robert Wyatt,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Magma,
Swell Maps,
Supertramp,
The Five Americans,
Jacob Miller,
Suburban Knight,
Kool Moe Dee,
Electric Prunes,
Arab on Radar,
Byron Stingily,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Toasters,
Nas,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
the Sonics,
The Gories,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
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.