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 Ukraine and from Spokane.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Lille.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 the Human League to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All The Peanut Butter Conspiracy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Buzzcocks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s 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 Peter & Gordon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
D'Angelo,
Eden Ahbez,
Rod Modell,
Little Man,
A Certain Ratio,
Wings,
DNA,
The Fortunes,
New York Dolls,
Hot Snakes,
The Skatalites,
Second Layer,
Intrusion,
Severed Heads,
Accadde A,
The Fugs,
the Slits,
Index,
Hoover,
Dark Day,
Tom Boy,
Barclay James Harvest,
Qualms,
Outsiders,
Toni Rubio,
Kayak,
Crash Course in Science,
Kerri Chandler,
Bizarre Inc.,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Lindisfarne,
Colin Newman,
Pantaleimon,
The Evens,
48th St. Collective,
Oneida,
Radio Birdman,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Bootsy Collins,
Negative Approach,
Visage,
Jacob Miller,
Technova,
New Order,
Peter & Gordon,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Robert Wyatt,
Arcadia,
Bang On A Can,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Derrick May,
E-Dancer,
Cluster,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Unrelated Segments,
Ken Boothe,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Boogie Down Productions,
Tommy Roe,
The Slits,
The Doors,
Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses, Nation of Ulysses.
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.