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 Saudi Arabia and from Bremen.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Gil Scott Heron to the crunk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Human League. All the underground hits.
All The Tremeloes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Arcadia record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Massinfluence,
Robert Wyatt,
Shoche,
Man Eating Sloth,
Visage,
The Motions,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Music Machine,
Gang of Four,
In Retrospect,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Y Pants,
Pere Ubu,
Eve St. Jones,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Anthony Braxton,
Young Marble Giants,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Byron Stingily,
Mission of Burma,
Max Romeo,
The Real Kids,
Johnny Osbourne,
Suburban Knight,
Severed Heads,
Cluster,
Mark Hollis,
Bobby Byrd,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Todd Rundgren,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Cheater Slicks,
Joey Negro,
Carl Craig,
The Leaves,
Cecil Taylor,
Model 500,
Sarah Menescal,
Nick Fraelich,
New Age Steppers,
Letta Mbulu,
Agitation Free,
Crispy Ambulance,
Pierre Henry,
Altered Images,
Simply Red,
Lungfish,
Kaleidoscope,
New York Dolls,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Raincoats,
Brass Construction,
Black Pus,
Tim Buckley,
the Soft Cell,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Moody Blues,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Interpol,
Barry Ungar,
Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood, Lee Hazlewood.
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.