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 Somalia and from Manila.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 clarinet 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 Ajijia Myrayebe to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Notorious Big And Bone Thugs. All the underground hits.
All Hoover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Curtis Mayfield record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Con Funk Shun,
Kerri Chandler,
Marvin Gaye,
X-102,
Organ,
Swans,
the Normal,
The Cowsills,
Henry Cow,
The Dead C,
Malaria!,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Connie Case,
Black Moon,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
X-Ray Spex,
Lebanon Hanover,
Average White Band,
Jeff Mills,
Thompson Twins,
Rod Modell,
The Invisible,
LL Cool J,
Judy Mowatt,
Grandmaster Flash,
Amazonics,
Colin Newman,
Loose Ends,
48th St. Collective,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Au Pairs,
Althea and Donna,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
This Heat,
a-ha,
Roger Hodgson,
Albert Ayler,
The Shadows of Knight,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Pulsallama,
Crime,
Visage,
The Remains,
The Modern Lovers,
Pole,
Lee Hazlewood,
Eddi Front,
Soul II Soul,
Junior Murvin,
Rosa Yemen,
Byron Stingily,
Sällskapet,
The Cramps,
Index,
Fatback Band,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Scan 7,
Pylon,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.