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 Cuba and from Manila.
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 1968 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and New York.
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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet 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 X-Ray Spex to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Gong. All the underground hits.
All Ornette Coleman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wings record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DJ Style record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Darondo,
James White and The Blacks,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Whodini,
Bluetip,
Eve St. Jones,
Pet Shop Boys,
John Holt,
Joensuu 1685,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Bill Wells,
The American Breed,
The Mummies,
Moss Icon,
David Bowie,
Andrew Hill,
Boogie Down Productions,
Ituana,
Don Cherry,
X-101,
Rotary Connection,
Nik Kershaw,
Fluxion,
Livin' Joy,
Harmonia,
Junior Murvin,
Traffic Nightmare,
Jacques Brel,
Crooked Eye,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Outsiders,
Blossom Toes,
The Skatalites,
Altered Images,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Pantytec,
Soft Machine,
The Gap Band,
Joe Finger,
The Wake,
The Motions,
The Moleskins,
Parry Music,
Johnny Osbourne,
Oneida,
The Music Machine,
Panda Bear,
Marc Almond,
U.S. Maple,
Nation of Ulysses,
Aaron Thompson,
Jandek,
The Star Department,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Colin Newman,
The Raincoats,
John Foxx,
Au Pairs,
Shoche,
Can,
Morten Harket,
Fugazi,
Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy McGriff.
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.