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 Botswana and from Philadelphia.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Copenhagen.
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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the clarinet 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 48th St. Collective to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Five Americans. All the underground hits.
All DJ Sneak tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Germs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Animal Collective record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pulsallama,
Vladislav Delay,
Crash Course in Science,
Kerri Chandler,
The Motions,
Peter and Kerry,
Fluxion,
Half Japanese,
The New Christs,
Lalo Schifrin,
Interpol,
Cecil Taylor,
Mission of Burma,
Y Pants,
The Fire Engines,
the Soft Cell,
Derrick May,
Camberwell Now,
Slick Rick,
Bobby Womack,
Radiopuhelimet,
Lakeside,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Bizarre Inc.,
Jacob Miller,
Don Cherry,
World's Most,
Alton Ellis,
The Raincoats,
Guru Guru,
Arab on Radar,
Brick,
Gong,
Sonny Sharrock,
Neu!,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Boogie Down Productions,
Cluster,
Gil Scott Heron,
Aswad,
Severed Heads,
Zero Boys,
Ultravox,
Albert Ayler,
Q and Not U,
Erykah Badu,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Birthday Party,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Donny Hathaway,
The Move,
Alice Coltrane,
Maleditus Sound,
The J.B.'s,
Suicide,
Sixth Finger,
Gang Gang Dance,
Todd Terry,
Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth, Man Eating Sloth.
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.