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 Gambia and from Tokyo.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Taipei.
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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Glenn Branca to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Pantaleimon. All the underground hits.
All Ludus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minutemen 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Hood record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Derrick May,
Eli Mardock,
The Doors,
X-101,
The Misunderstood,
Negative Approach,
Essential Logic,
Pole,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Jandek,
Young Marble Giants,
Guru Guru,
John Coltrane,
DJ Sneak,
Quadrant,
T. Rex,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bill Near,
Soft Cell,
Country Teasers,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Martian,
Mr. Review,
The Young Rascals,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Roy Ayers,
Harpers Bizarre,
Steve Hackett,
The Wake,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Severed Heads,
Eden Ahbez,
Sun City Girls,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Rakim,
Excepter,
La Düsseldorf,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Cowsills,
Slave,
The Five Americans,
Pagans,
The Doobie Brothers,
Kurtis Blow,
Banda Bassotti,
Lee Hazlewood,
Audionom,
Roxy Music,
Ice-T,
Slick Rick,
Marmalade,
Rufus Thomas,
Saccharine Trust,
Japan,
Erasure,
Eric B and Rakim,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Gang of Four,
Ten City,
Nick Fraelich,
Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay, Vladislav Delay.
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.