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 China and from Lyon.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Maurizio 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk. All the underground hits.
All Zero Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kevin Saunderson 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Theoretical Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Angry Samoans,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Camberwell Now,
Crime,
Kool Moe Dee,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Pylon,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Accadde A,
Tom Boy,
Todd Terry,
Ronan,
Pere Ubu,
The Litter,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Camouflage,
Charles Mingus,
Khruangbin,
Essential Logic,
Vladislav Delay,
Unwound,
Leonard Cohen,
Index,
Circle Jerks,
Lakeside,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Sarah Menescal,
the Soft Cell,
Eddi Front,
The Durutti Column,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Oneida,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Young Marble Giants,
Vainqueur,
The Residents,
Barbara Tucker,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Freddie Wadling,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Cheater Slicks,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Terry Callier,
Ossler,
Livin' Joy,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ludus,
Jacques Brel,
X-101,
The Names,
Surgeon,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Lungfish,
John Cale,
Tubeway Army,
The Cramps,
Albert Ayler,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.