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 Japan and from Mexico City.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the marimba 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the grunge 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 June of 44. All the underground hits.
All Terror Squad Feat. Camron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Pretty Things record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sonics,
Marine Girls,
Bobby Byrd,
The Stooges,
MDC,
Marcia Griffiths,
Anthony Braxton,
Lyres,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Aswad,
In Retrospect,
The Cure,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Bang On A Can,
Lou Reed,
Derrick May,
David McCallum,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Leonard Cohen,
Gang Starr,
Thee Headcoats,
The Electric Prunes,
The Tremeloes,
Magazine,
The Dirtbombs,
Ponytail,
Dawn Penn,
Lebanon Hanover,
Slick Rick,
The Five Americans,
Masters at Work,
Heaven 17,
Circle Jerks,
Aloha Tigers,
Gichy Dan,
Hoover,
Shuggie Otis,
Wire,
Faraquet,
Motorama,
Barbara Tucker,
Dorothy Ashby,
ABC,
Black Bananas,
Graham Central Station,
Fugazi,
Pulsallama,
The Moleskins,
Brick,
Eric Copeland,
Rufus Thomas,
Amazonics,
Ultimate Spinach,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Gladiators,
Marvin Gaye,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Divine Comedy,
Outsiders,
Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers, Sam Rivers.
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.