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 Botswana and from Johannesburg.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Edmonton.
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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Sonic Youth to the techno 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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks. All the underground hits.
All Oppenheimer Analysis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Au Pairs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantaleimon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crash Course in Science,
Kayak,
The Alarm Clocks,
ABC,
Von Mondo,
MC5,
The Motions,
Malaria!,
The Leaves,
Faust,
Bauhaus,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Offenders,
The Martian,
Tim Buckley,
The Stooges,
Black Moon,
Swell Maps,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
EPMD,
Arthur Verocai,
David Axelrod,
Anthony Braxton,
Camouflage,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Nation of Ulysses,
T.S.O.L.,
Donald Byrd,
Cluster,
Circle Jerks,
Gabor Szabo,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Gap Band,
Pierre Henry,
Faraquet,
Danielle Patucci,
Talk Talk,
Robert Hood,
The Moleskins,
Deadbeat,
Infiniti,
Nirvana,
The Misunderstood,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Fugazi,
the Normal,
Sandy B,
Harmonia,
Soft Cell,
JFA,
Flamin' Groovies,
Nick Fraelich,
D'Angelo,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
the Bar-Kays,
Ronan,
Bobby Hutcherson,
New Age Steppers,
The Remains,
F. McDonald, F. McDonald, F. McDonald, F. McDonald.
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.