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 Turkey and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe 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 Beasts of Bourbon to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Jandek. All the underground hits.
All Oppenheimer Analysis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maleditus Sound 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Larry & the Blue Notes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Arthur Verocai,
Fela Kuti,
Barry Ungar,
Swell Maps,
The Golliwogs,
Eddi Front,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Masters at Work,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Traffic Nightmare,
Blossom Toes,
Ossler,
Lou Reed,
Trumans Water,
Letta Mbulu,
48th St. Collective,
Barclay James Harvest,
Unrelated Segments,
Nik Kershaw,
Au Pairs,
Ponytail,
Gang Starr,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Martian,
Albert Ayler,
The Busters,
Lebanon Hanover,
DJ Style,
Lightning Bolt,
Bobby Sherman,
Sonic Youth,
the Slits,
Young Marble Giants,
Visage,
The Sound,
Scientists,
Schoolly D,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Max Romeo,
Faust,
Rekid,
Tres Demented,
Pole,
Junior Murvin,
The Trojans,
Bad Manners,
Index,
Susan Cadogan,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Harmonia,
Television,
The Alarm Clocks,
Leonard Cohen,
Metal Thangz,
Sonny Sharrock,
Soulsonic Force,
the Soft Cell,
Vladislav Delay,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Morten Harket,
Sarah Menescal,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.