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 Macedonia and from Delhi.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Crispy Ambulance to the grime 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 Negative Approach. All the underground hits.
All Alton Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick Morgan 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang On A Can,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Smiths,
The Move,
Blake Baxter,
Bronski Beat,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Durutti Column,
Silicon Teens,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Raincoats,
Pylon,
The Fortunes,
Harry Pussy,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
X-102,
Scan 7,
Cheater Slicks,
Al Stewart,
Quando Quango,
Terry Callier,
Panda Bear,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Donald Byrd,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Rufus Thomas,
Con Funk Shun,
Little Man,
Terrestrial Tones,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Brick,
Tropical Tobacco,
Negative Approach,
Bob Dylan,
Graham Central Station,
Tres Demented,
Pere Ubu,
The Red Krayola,
Joe Finger,
Surgeon,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Half Japanese,
Animal Collective,
Suburban Knight,
Stetsasonic,
X-Ray Spex,
Gang of Four,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Khruangbin,
Nick Fraelich,
EPMD,
Das Ding,
Soft Cell,
Circle Jerks,
Basic Channel,
Fear,
Sam Rivers,
Can,
Maurizio,
Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment.
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.