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 Vietnam and from Spokane.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the sitar 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 Von Mondo to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Cal Tjader. All the underground hits.
All Mary Jane Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Interpol record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television Personalities record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Camberwell Now,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Smog,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sam Rivers,
F. McDonald,
Magazine,
Ituana,
Spandau Ballet,
Aswad,
the Normal,
Aloha Tigers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
JFA,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Martian,
Little Man,
The Buckinghams,
Wire,
Jerry's Kids,
Soft Cell,
Cecil Taylor,
Donny Hathaway,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sonny Sharrock,
Roy Ayers,
David McCallum,
Sonic Youth,
The Walker Brothers,
Jesper Dahlback,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Rosa Yemen,
Yaz,
Gabor Szabo,
Ice-T,
The Residents,
Bluetip,
Amon Düül,
Sound Behaviour,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Gang Starr,
Suicide,
Monolake,
Aural Exciters,
Delon & Dalcan,
Young Marble Giants,
Fugazi,
The Music Machine,
Kevin Saunderson,
Matthew Bourne,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Tom Boy,
New York Dolls,
Organ,
Zapp,
Silicon Teens,
The Monochrome Set,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Last Poets,
The Velvet Underground,
Godley & Creme,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.