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 San Marino and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Albert Ayler to the grime 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 Sly & The Family Stone. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lower 48 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Outsiders record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Normal,
Johnny Clarke,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Saccharine Trust,
Godley & Creme,
Black Bananas,
Byron Stingily,
The Techniques,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Lindisfarne,
B.T. Express,
The Invisible,
Subhumans,
Toni Rubio,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Goldenarms,
Quantec,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Siglo XX,
Arthur Verocai,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Nils Olav,
kango's stein massive,
Aaron Thompson,
Wolf Eyes,
Nation of Ulysses,
Qualms,
Malaria!,
Andrew Hill,
Neil Young,
AZ,
Zero Boys,
Soul II Soul,
Scott Walker,
Robert Hood,
Delta 5,
Index,
Man Eating Sloth,
Reagan Youth,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Joe Smooth,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Adolescents,
These Immortal Souls,
Grey Daturas,
The Five Americans,
Cecil Taylor,
Motorama,
The Beau Brummels,
Metal Thangz,
Heaven 17,
Lebanon Hanover,
Rakim,
Model 500,
Funkadelic,
Theoretical Girls,
Loose Ends,
This Heat,
Big Daddy Kane,
MDC,
Yazoo,
Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop.
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.