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 Eritrea and from New York.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Tokyo.
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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Talk Talk to the rock 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 Faraquet. All the underground hits.
All Tropical Tobacco tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-102 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Mills,
Second Layer,
Lebanon Hanover,
Black Sheep,
UT,
Japan,
Henry Cow,
Malaria!,
Sun City Girls,
Dark Day,
Wire,
Underground Resistance,
Smog,
New Age Steppers,
Scratch Acid,
Nation of Ulysses,
Stiv Bators,
Inner City,
D'Angelo,
Gang Starr,
Cluster,
The Birthday Party,
Niagra,
Oblivians,
Pylon,
10cc,
Prince Buster,
Alphaville,
Maurizio,
Donald Byrd,
T. Rex,
The Pop Group,
Alice Coltrane,
Ice-T,
The Divine Comedy,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Traffic Nightmare,
Bauhaus,
Grandmaster Flash,
John Lydon,
Peter and Kerry,
Yaz,
Neu!,
Crime,
The Busters,
John Foxx,
Albert Ayler,
Qualms,
Harry Pussy,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Zero Boys,
The Mummies,
Gong,
Sound Behaviour,
Dorothy Ashby,
Grey Daturas,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Delta 5,
Black Flag,
Tropical Tobacco,
Isaac Hayes,
One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish, One Last Wish.
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.