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 Maldives and from Sao Paulo.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Second Layer to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Davy DMX. All the underground hits.
All It's A Beautiful Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harpers Bizarre 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ralphi Rosario record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Suburban Knight,
Minutemen,
Vladislav Delay,
Iggy Pop,
Soul Sonic Force,
Blossom Toes,
Aswad,
Alice Coltrane,
Public Enemy,
Alison Limerick,
The J.B.'s,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
D'Angelo,
The Slits,
Al Stewart,
Mo-Dettes,
Radiohead,
A Certain Ratio,
Fear,
Erasure,
Thee Headcoats,
Mad Mike,
Scrapy,
the Slits,
Malaria!,
Tomorrow,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sonic Youth,
Joe Smooth,
Excepter,
Yellowson,
Wire,
Hot Snakes,
Fluxion,
Joyce Sims,
Brick,
Swans,
Chris & Cosey,
Big Daddy Kane,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Saccharine Trust,
JFA,
Half Japanese,
Leonard Cohen,
Slick Rick,
Basic Channel,
Quadrant,
The Busters,
Bootsy Collins,
Grauzone,
The Count Five,
R.M.O.,
Johnny Osbourne,
Altered Images,
Roy Ayers,
Junior Murvin,
the Association,
Lalann,
The Happenings,
Ronnie Foster,
Model 500,
Morten Harket,
Ralphi Rosario,
Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment, Sexual Harrassment.
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.