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 Zimbabwe and from Seoul.
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 Woodstock and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Roy Ayers Ubiquity to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Amon Düül II. All the underground hits.
All Goldenarms tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Television Personalities 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantytec record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Index,
Eric Dolphy,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Japan,
The New Christs,
Sound Behaviour,
the Normal,
Warren Ellis,
Visage,
Blossom Toes,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Main Source,
Ultra Naté,
Albert Ayler,
The Real Kids,
Barbara Tucker,
Susan Cadogan,
Pharoah Sanders,
Unwound,
The Sound,
Barrington Levy,
Echospace,
David McCallum,
Ultravox,
Ralphi Rosario,
Joe Smooth,
The Gladiators,
The Last Poets,
Man Eating Sloth,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lightning Bolt,
Boz Scaggs,
Hardrive,
The Zeros,
Charles Mingus,
The Dead C,
Glambeats Corp.,
Wire,
Outsiders,
The Sonics,
Glenn Branca,
Matthew Bourne,
Los Fastidios,
Max Romeo,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Donald Byrd,
Mo-Dettes,
Stereo Dub,
Carl Craig,
the Sonics,
Interpol,
Minor Threat,
Connie Case,
Kenny Larkin,
Crispian St. Peters,
Oblivians,
Masters at Work,
Swell Maps,
Joey Negro,
Ash Ra Tempel,
La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf.
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.