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 Cyprus and from Taipei.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 China Crisis to the jazz 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 The Pretty Things. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Schoolly D 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Dolphy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Second Layer,
Delta 5,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Quadrant,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Magazine,
Surgeon,
The Neon Judgement,
Scratch Acid,
Circle Jerks,
the Soft Cell,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Shadows of Knight,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
H. Thieme,
Monks,
The Saints,
Maleditus Sound,
The United States of America,
The Birthday Party,
Crime,
the Association,
Bizarre Inc.,
Absolute Body Control,
Reagan Youth,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Boogie Down Productions,
Sparks,
Michelle Simonal,
Skriet,
John Foxx,
Camouflage,
Maurizio,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Sister Nancy,
Brass Construction,
Pere Ubu,
David McCallum,
Unwound,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Misunderstood,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Sandy B,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Hasil Adkins,
The Barracudas,
Easy Going,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
The Residents,
The Moleskins,
Soul Sonic Force,
Pylon,
Henry Cow,
Crooked Eye,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Glenn Branca,
The Names,
Radiohead,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.