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 Canada and from Bremen.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the 808 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 Sun City Girls to the dance 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 X-101. All the underground hits.
All Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aural Exciters record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ralphi Rosario record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Saccharine Trust,
The Index,
Subhumans,
Can,
The Dave Clark Five,
Buzzcocks,
The Busters,
Sound Behaviour,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Gregory Isaacs,
Spoonie Gee,
Crooked Eye,
Cybotron,
David Axelrod,
Depeche Mode,
The Seeds,
Soul Sonic Force,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Ponytail,
The Names,
The Mojo Men,
Cecil Taylor,
Boz Scaggs,
E-Dancer,
Warren Ellis,
Scott Walker,
Jandek,
the Swans,
Accadde A,
Khruangbin,
The Saints,
Lightning Bolt,
Gabor Szabo,
D'Angelo,
Quando Quango,
Brick,
John Lydon,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
In Retrospect,
Alison Limerick,
the Normal,
Eric Dolphy,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Mary Jane Girls,
Drive Like Jehu,
June of 44,
Cluster,
The Happenings,
Boredoms,
Basic Channel,
EPMD,
Barbara Tucker,
Freddie Wadling,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Amon Düül,
Gastr Del Sol,
Blossom Toes,
Absolute Body Control,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Durutti Column,
Scientists,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.