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 Zimbabwe 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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Second Layer to the rap 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 Brand Nubian. All the underground hits.
All Ituana tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric B and Rakim record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Dolphy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Can,
Quadrant,
Chris Corsano,
The Toasters,
Theoretical Girls,
Fifty Foot Hose,
The Happenings,
The Real Kids,
Jesper Dahlback,
DJ Sneak,
June Days,
Kas Product,
New Order,
Wire,
Crime,
Freddie Wadling,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Second Layer,
Rakim,
Tropical Tobacco,
Interpol,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Frankie Knuckles,
Camouflage,
the Human League,
World's Most,
A Certain Ratio,
Das Ding,
Spoonie Gee,
Boredoms,
Ohio Players,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Gladiators,
The Remains,
Surgeon,
Patti Smith,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Bizarre Inc.,
Crooked Eye,
Rhythm & Sound,
Jimmy McGriff,
Masters at Work,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Minor Threat,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Suicide,
the Slits,
Cluster,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Babytalk,
L. Decosne,
Zapp,
The Vogues,
Eric Copeland,
Au Pairs,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Suburban Knight,
Derrick Morgan,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Livin' Joy,
Khruangbin,
The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros, The Zeros.
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.