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 St Lucia 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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Guru Guru to the rap kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Aloha Tigers. All the underground hits.
All Yusef Lateef tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Coltrane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 theremin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cymande record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Gap Band,
The Dave Clark Five,
Lyres,
Aural Exciters,
CMW,
Blossom Toes,
Scan 7,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Wolf Eyes,
Rapeman,
L. Decosne,
Derrick Morgan,
Don Cherry,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Quando Quango,
Todd Terry,
Clear Light,
One Last Wish,
Make Up,
Faraquet,
Bob Dylan,
Sandy B,
Alice Coltrane,
K-Klass,
Second Layer,
Swell Maps,
Theoretical Girls,
The Dirtbombs,
Young Marble Giants,
Easy Going,
Bush Tetras,
Moby Grape,
Royal Trux,
The Real Kids,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Fortunes,
Youth Brigade,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Raincoats,
Excepter,
Cal Tjader,
World's Most,
The Fall,
Aloha Tigers,
The Alarm Clocks,
PIL,
Funky Four + One,
Flamin' Groovies,
Bobby Womack,
Pylon,
Harpers Bizarre,
Ten City,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Camouflage,
Alphaville,
MC5,
The Searchers,
The Slackers,
The Count Five,
Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith.
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.