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 Swaziland and from Hong Kong.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Rhythim Is Rhythim to the grunge 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 Lightning Bolt. All the underground hits.
All Pantaleimon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kaleidoscope record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a D'Angelo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kenny Larkin,
The Smiths,
Fluxion,
MC5,
Don Cherry,
The Kinks,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
New York Dolls,
The Pretty Things,
the Germs,
Arab on Radar,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Evens,
K-Klass,
Freddie Wadling,
Wolf Eyes,
James White and The Blacks,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Bluetip,
Janne Schatter,
Dual Sessions,
Soft Machine,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Electric Prunes,
The Buckinghams,
Junior Murvin,
Fat Boys,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Fortunes,
Aaron Thompson,
Robert Wyatt,
Sonny Sharrock,
Gang Starr,
Television,
Urselle,
the Sonics,
Faust,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Franke,
ABBA,
Barry Ungar,
Jandek,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Raincoats,
Black Moon,
Agent Orange,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Cowsills,
Stereo Dub,
Heaven 17,
Lee Hazlewood,
Vladislav Delay,
Dennis Brown,
Crispian St. Peters,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Symarip,
Arcadia,
Kas Product,
Thompson Twins,
Whodini, Whodini, Whodini, Whodini.
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.