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 Bhutan and from Copenhagen.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the theremin 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 Ash Ra Tempel to the funk 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 Monolake. All the underground hits.
All Clear Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacques Brel,
Black Moon,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Nas,
Babytalk,
Marvin Gaye,
Sixth Finger,
Colin Newman,
Index,
The Residents,
The Fall,
Agent Orange,
Scientists,
Amon Düül,
The Motions,
Parry Music,
Visage,
Roxette,
Jeru the Damaja,
Unrelated Segments,
Magazine,
Lou Reed,
Judy Mowatt,
John Foxx,
Faust,
Siglo XX,
Altered Images,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
John Cale,
Kevin Saunderson,
Rufus Thomas,
Ossler,
Swans,
Tubeway Army,
Neil Young,
The Index,
Jandek,
Jimmy McGriff,
Darondo,
Sun City Girls,
JFA,
Letta Mbulu,
The Five Americans,
The Golliwogs,
The Gun Club,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Thee Headcoats,
Barbara Tucker,
Warsaw,
Pantytec,
Schoolly D,
Dennis Brown,
The Shadows of Knight,
Freddie Wadling,
Lebanon Hanover,
Bauhaus,
Country Teasers,
Danielle Patucci,
DJ Sneak,
Marshall Jefferson,
Eddi Front,
Symarip,
The Techniques,
Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy.
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.