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 Venezuela and from Cairo.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the theremin 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 Rod Modell to the rap 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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu. All the underground hits.
All Kurtis Blow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Outsiders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Country Joe & The Fish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Make Up,
The Sound,
Swell Maps,
The Moody Blues,
Warren Ellis,
Boogie Down Productions,
Television,
The Invisible,
Nick Fraelich,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Steve Hackett,
Wally Richardson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Derrick May,
Grauzone,
The Zeros,
Mission of Burma,
Sam Rivers,
The J.B.'s,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Cramps,
Radiohead,
Cheater Slicks,
Sun City Girls,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sound Behaviour,
Thompson Twins,
Young Marble Giants,
Supertramp,
KRS-One,
Main Source,
Tears for Fears,
Massinfluence,
The Fire Engines,
Be Bop Deluxe,
John Coltrane,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lucky Dragons,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Golliwogs,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Radiopuhelimet,
Albert Ayler,
The Fall,
Soft Machine,
Hashim,
Toni Rubio,
Unwound,
Theoretical Girls,
The Dave Clark Five,
Y Pants,
Mad Mike,
Brand Nubian,
Glenn Branca,
Lungfish,
K-Klass,
Ossler, Ossler, Ossler, Ossler.
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.