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 Uganda and from Accra.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 snare 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 Symarip to the dance 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 Glambeats Corp.. All the underground hits.
All Major Organ And The Adding Machine tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick May record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultimate Spinach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
The Gap Band,
The Knickerbockers,
Sandy B,
Banda Bassotti,
The American Breed,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Marshall Jefferson,
Arcadia,
Massinfluence,
Quadrant,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Warsaw,
Blake Baxter,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Dead C,
John Coltrane,
R.M.O.,
The Monks,
Steve Hackett,
Roger Hodgson,
10cc,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Idris Muhammad,
Traffic Nightmare,
Babytalk,
Sexual Harrassment,
ABC,
Can,
The Seeds,
the Fania All-Stars,
Echospace,
Anthony Braxton,
Tubeway Army,
Stockholm Monsters,
Charles Mingus,
Fugazi,
Livin' Joy,
the Association,
The Toasters,
Joe Smooth,
Das Ding,
Pere Ubu,
Brand Nubian,
Q and Not U,
Albert Ayler,
The Modern Lovers,
The Flesh Eaters,
Reagan Youth,
Scott Walker,
Unrelated Segments,
Cluster,
Pulsallama,
Jacob Miller,
Essential Logic,
Throbbing Gristle,
Duran Duran,
Barclay James Harvest,
Gang Starr,
The Stooges,
Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective, Animal Collective.
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.