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 Syria and from Winnipeg.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Gastr Del Sol to the funk 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 a-ha. All the underground hits.
All Patti Smith tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Birthday Party 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Faust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Age Steppers,
Zero Boys,
Mantronix,
The Trojans,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Zeros,
Organ,
Monks,
Suicide,
Crash Course in Science,
Gastr Del Sol,
Joey Negro,
The Beau Brummels,
Grandmaster Flash,
Schoolly D,
Gang of Four,
Half Japanese,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Colin Newman,
Erykah Badu,
Smog,
Funkadelic,
Ronnie Foster,
The Cure,
Slave,
Ituana,
Tres Demented,
AZ,
Maurizio,
Ludus,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Qualms,
Nirvana,
David Bowie,
New York Dolls,
Peter & Gordon,
Country Teasers,
Tomorrow,
Radiohead,
Alton Ellis,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Popol Vuh,
Swell Maps,
Rufus Thomas,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Saints,
These Immortal Souls,
Sonny Sharrock,
Das Ding,
the Bar-Kays,
LL Cool J,
Scientists,
Lucky Dragons,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Hasil Adkins,
Stereo Dub,
Pierre Henry,
John Cale,
EPMD, EPMD, EPMD, EPMD.
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.