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 India and from Sao Paulo.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Subhumans to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. All the underground hits.
All David Axelrod tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Surgeon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 guitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echospace record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Doors,
Sun City Girls,
Jacques Brel,
Adolescents,
Minutemen,
Bobby Womack,
Ice-T,
Jeff Mills,
Public Image Ltd.,
Marine Girls,
Rotary Connection,
Quando Quango,
Kerrie Biddell,
Cameo,
Section 25,
Stetsasonic,
Juan Atkins,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Birthday Party,
Pharoah Sanders,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Associates,
Lower 48,
Nils Olav,
Sam Rivers,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Rekid,
Nico,
Pantaleimon,
Fela Kuti,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Grey Daturas,
Bauhaus,
EPMD,
Tears for Fears,
Underground Resistance,
Crash Course in Science,
the Normal,
Intrusion,
Excepter,
Brass Construction,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Moleskins,
Niagra,
Main Source,
Girls At Our Best!,
Swell Maps,
Althea and Donna,
Terrestrial Tones,
Echospace,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
X-Ray Spex,
James White and The Blacks,
Pet Shop Boys,
Stiv Bators,
Average White Band,
Funky Four + One,
Lakeside,
The Zeros,
Desert Stars,
Erykah Badu,
Frankie Knuckles, Frankie Knuckles, Frankie Knuckles, Frankie Knuckles.
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.