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 El Salvador and from Mumbai.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Cybotron to the rap 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 Major Organ And The Adding Machine. All the underground hits.
All Lebanon Hanover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every London Community Gospel Choir record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Victims record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The American Breed,
The Barracudas,
The Black Dice,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Ralphi Rosario,
Ultravox,
Public Enemy,
Lebanon Hanover,
Pet Shop Boys,
Echospace,
Jacob Miller,
Sandy B,
Tears for Fears,
D'Angelo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Buzzcocks,
Gregory Isaacs,
Fela Kuti,
Tropical Tobacco,
Young Marble Giants,
Sugar Minott,
The Red Krayola,
The Angels of Light,
Jeru the Damaja,
Roy Ayers,
Marvin Gaye,
Metal Thangz,
Quadrant,
Ten City,
Interpol,
KRS-One,
Camberwell Now,
Gabor Szabo,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Rites of Spring,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Maleditus Sound,
Organ,
Oblivians,
David Axelrod,
Thompson Twins,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Sound Behaviour,
Livin' Joy,
Wings,
Juan Atkins,
The Last Poets,
Crooked Eye,
Rod Modell,
FM Einheit,
Kerrie Biddell,
Arcadia,
Lou Reed,
Little Man,
Lalann,
The Smiths,
Pylon,
Slave,
The Victims,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Cowsills,
Erykah Badu,
Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus, Newcleus.
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.