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 Paraguay and from Accra.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 sitar 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 Patti Smith to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Litter. All the underground hits.
All The Pop Group tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dennis Brown 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funky Four + One record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Josef K,
Average White Band,
Crash Course in Science,
Malaria!,
the Germs,
Sex Pistols,
Fear,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Soft Machine,
Althea and Donna,
Symarip,
Clear Light,
Ken Boothe,
The Techniques,
Alice Coltrane,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Rod Modell,
Ohio Players,
Duran Duran,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Cameo,
The Gap Band,
Mad Mike,
Jawbox,
Intrusion,
Little Man,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Stetsasonic,
Aloha Tigers,
Rotary Connection,
The Star Department,
Piero Umiliani,
Simply Red,
Von Mondo,
The Wake,
Motorama,
Adolescents,
Boredoms,
Black Bananas,
Visage,
Quantec,
Byron Stingily,
Wasted Youth,
Fat Boys,
Ralphi Rosario,
Lalo Schifrin,
Derrick May,
Yaz,
Make Up,
Nick Fraelich,
The New Christs,
the Bar-Kays,
Niagra,
The Blackbyrds,
The Cure,
Half Japanese,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Heaven 17,
the Human League,
The Sonics,
Stereo Dub,
Ice-T,
Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going, Easy Going.
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.