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 Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 rhodes 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 Frankie Knuckles to the grime 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 Iggy Pop. All the underground hits.
All Das Ding tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angry Samoans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Carl Craig record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swell Maps,
Radio Birdman,
Simply Red,
Little Man,
Alice Coltrane,
The Offenders,
Bob Dylan,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Drexciya,
Cheater Slicks,
Sparks,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Sam Rivers,
Nirvana,
Barbara Tucker,
The Trojans,
Model 500,
Carl Craig,
Fear,
Glambeats Corp.,
Sister Nancy,
X-Ray Spex,
Deakin,
T.S.O.L.,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Walker Brothers,
The Pretty Things,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Vogues,
Stereo Dub,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Smiths,
Gichy Dan,
Junior Murvin,
Radiopuhelimet,
Sly & The Family Stone,
John Cale,
The Electric Prunes,
the Fania All-Stars,
Johnny Clarke,
Soft Cell,
Donald Byrd,
Deadbeat,
Clear Light,
Gastr Del Sol,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Amon Düül II,
KRS-One,
UT,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Motorama,
The Golliwogs,
Zero Boys,
Sixth Finger,
Johnny Osbourne,
Ice-T,
Quantec,
Brass Construction,
Bobby Sherman,
Soft Machine,
The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics, The Sonics.
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.