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 Togo and from Delhi.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Sound Behaviour to the grime kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Second Layer. All the underground hits.
All The Raincoats tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every David McCallum record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Mars record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crash Course in Science,
Aswad,
Lalo Schifrin,
Pantytec,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Gun Club,
Pagans,
Gang Starr,
Donny Hathaway,
Crispy Ambulance,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Massinfluence,
The Buckinghams,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Tears for Fears,
Archie Shepp,
Moby Grape,
Minutemen,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Babytalk,
Fugazi,
John Cale,
Animal Collective,
Average White Band,
Clear Light,
Danielle Patucci,
The Selecter,
Simply Red,
Nik Kershaw,
Groovy Waters,
Marvin Gaye,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Franke,
Erykah Badu,
Warsaw,
Popol Vuh,
Gerry Rafferty,
Quadrant,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eurythmics,
Section 25,
Moebius,
Y Pants,
John Lydon,
The Electric Prunes,
Ice-T,
Interpol,
Minor Threat,
Sixth Finger,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ronan,
Nils Olav,
Little Man,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Toasters,
Ronnie Foster,
The Evens,
Bush Tetras,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Saints,
Soft Cell,
CMW,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
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.