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 Japan and from Shanghai.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 organ 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 Jandek to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Clear Light. All the underground hits.
All Sight & Sound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Durutti Column record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pylon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yazoo,
Neil Young,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
A Certain Ratio,
Sun Ra,
Alton Ellis,
Iggy Pop,
DJ Style,
The Moleskins,
Lower 48,
Lyres,
Yaz,
The Cure,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Alice Coltrane,
Zapp,
Nation of Ulysses,
Aswad,
The Shadows of Knight,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Boz Scaggs,
X-102,
Scientists,
Bluetip,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Quadrant,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Echospace,
The Doors,
Moby Grape,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Fortunes,
The Happenings,
Desert Stars,
The Invisible,
a-ha,
Pharoah Sanders,
Dennis Brown,
Curtis Mayfield,
Quando Quango,
The Grass Roots,
L. Decosne,
Bobby Womack,
Tom Boy,
Main Source,
Trumans Water,
Spoonie Gee,
James White and The Blacks,
Laurel Aitken,
the Normal,
Gregory Isaacs,
Infiniti,
Khruangbin,
Ludus,
Slick Rick,
Rod Modell,
David Bowie,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro, Joey Negro.
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.