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 Croatia and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 10cc. All the underground hits.
All Arcadia tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every A Certain Ratio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Television record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Can,
The Count Five,
Roy Ayers,
Sexual Harrassment,
AZ,
Letta Mbulu,
the Bar-Kays,
John Foxx,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Selecter,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Smog,
Bluetip,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Young Marble Giants,
Lyres,
Jerry Gold Smith,
New Order,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
the Sonics,
Motorama,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Star Department,
Kerri Chandler,
Joy Division,
Roxette,
Pulsallama,
Maurizio,
Jesper Dahlback,
Pharoah Sanders,
Drexciya,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Yusef Lateef,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Mummies,
Donald Byrd,
The United States of America,
The Flesh Eaters,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Arcadia,
Lower 48,
Gang of Four,
Blake Baxter,
Brass Construction,
Girls At Our Best!,
Minnie Riperton,
A Certain Ratio,
Wally Richardson,
The Sound,
The Alarm Clocks,
Whodini,
Fluxion,
Unrelated Segments,
Simply Red,
Groovy Waters,
The Victims,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Cure,
Marine Girls,
Sun City Girls,
Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant.
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.