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 Mongolia and from Delhi.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Larry & the Blue Notes to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Red Krayola. All the underground hits.
All The Birthday Party tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mo-Dettes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kenny Larkin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pop Group,
Mantronix,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Tim Buckley,
Khruangbin,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Nas,
Intrusion,
Index,
Aloha Tigers,
The Standells,
Albert Ayler,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Kurtis Blow,
Electric Prunes,
The Gun Club,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Soulsonic Force,
Liliput,
Blossom Toes,
Banda Bassotti,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Warsaw,
The Grass Roots,
Technova,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Barrington Levy,
The J.B.'s,
D'Angelo,
the Normal,
The Birthday Party,
The Moleskins,
Rotary Connection,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Parry Music,
The Mojo Men,
Rosa Yemen,
Dennis Brown,
Lakeside,
Stockholm Monsters,
Nation of Ulysses,
Motorama,
Black Bananas,
Bronski Beat,
Roger Hodgson,
Ornette Coleman,
Derrick May,
The Techniques,
Y Pants,
Faust,
Schoolly D,
The Blackbyrds,
June Days,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Goldenarms,
Drexciya,
Soft Cell,
Youth Brigade,
Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti.
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.