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 Gambia and from Seoul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the rhodes 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 K-Klass to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Vaughan Mason & Crew. All the underground hits.
All the Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crispy Ambulance 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 guitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cheater Slicks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New York Dolls,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ornette Coleman,
Glenn Branca,
Dawn Penn,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Deakin,
Freddie Wadling,
Sister Nancy,
Hardrive,
Joey Negro,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
EPMD,
The Sonics,
Ultravox,
Barbara Tucker,
Blancmange,
Black Flag,
Patti Smith,
Soulsonic Force,
Gong,
Wally Richardson,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
R.M.O.,
Slick Rick,
John Foxx,
Max Romeo,
Faraquet,
the Sonics,
Arthur Verocai,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Eddi Front,
Pagans,
Sight & Sound,
Sonny Sharrock,
Harry Pussy,
Anakelly,
A Certain Ratio,
Depeche Mode,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
MC5,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Slackers,
Outsiders,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Black Sheep,
Chris Corsano,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Big Daddy Kane,
Eden Ahbez,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Kinks,
the Fania All-Stars,
Gang Starr,
Boredoms,
Organ,
Soft Machine,
Bobby Womack,
Junior Murvin,
The Cowsills,
Von Mondo,
Jacob Miller,
the Germs,
Section 25,
AZ, AZ, AZ, AZ.
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.