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 Dominican Republic and from Glasgow.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Seoul.
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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Grandmaster Flash to the electroclash 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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Gichy Dan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Suburban Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Reuben Wilson,
Big Daddy Kane,
Pet Shop Boys,
Boredoms,
Pere Ubu,
The Cramps,
the Swans,
LL Cool J,
Brothers Johnson,
The Red Krayola,
Bootsy Collins,
Idris Muhammad,
Scientists,
Lucky Dragons,
The Smoke,
Ash Ra Tempel,
the Slits,
Johnny Osbourne,
Glenn Branca,
Terry Callier,
The Monks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Tubeway Army,
The Standells,
Massinfluence,
Tomorrow,
Little Man,
Funky Four + One,
Organ,
the Bar-Kays,
Saccharine Trust,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Terrestrial Tones,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Joy Division,
The Fuzztones,
CMW,
Bob Dylan,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Urselle,
Donald Byrd,
World's Most,
Underground Resistance,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Groovy Waters,
Ponytail,
June of 44,
Oneida,
Mark Hollis,
Guru Guru,
Archie Shepp,
the Sonics,
Eric Copeland,
Popol Vuh,
cv313,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Ice-T,
Deakin,
Aural Exciters,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Deepchord,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.