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 Sri Lanka and from Hong Kong.
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 1966 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 güiro 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 The Neon Judgement 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 David Axelrod. All the underground hits.
All Roxette tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kings Of Tomorrow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Main Source record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pierre Henry,
Severed Heads,
Terrestrial Tones,
Scientists,
Mo-Dettes,
L. Decosne,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Can,
Dorothy Ashby,
Hardrive,
Gregory Isaacs,
Banda Bassotti,
Animal Collective,
Sixth Finger,
Eric Dolphy,
X-102,
Lou Reed,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Divine Comedy,
The Electric Prunes,
Underground Resistance,
Mad Mike,
Stiv Bators,
Absolute Body Control,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Eric Copeland,
Easy Going,
Lindisfarne,
The Fuzztones,
Symarip,
Danielle Patucci,
The Skatalites,
Nick Fraelich,
Pet Shop Boys,
Tres Demented,
Boz Scaggs,
The Sound,
Graham Central Station,
The Five Americans,
Deakin,
Robert Hood,
Aloha Tigers,
Avey Tare,
Black Bananas,
Patti Smith,
Blake Baxter,
Flipper,
Jawbox,
Radiohead,
Theoretical Girls,
The Mojo Men,
The Velvet Underground,
The Leaves,
Bill Wells,
Nik Kershaw,
Icehouse,
Sonny Sharrock,
Pharoah Sanders,
Donald Byrd,
The Last Poets,
Index,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Althea and Donna,
Ronan,
Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps, Swell Maps.
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.