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 Israel and from Cairo.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Milan.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
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 techno 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 Average White Band. All the underground hits.
All Dark Day tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cecil Taylor record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Reuben Wilson,
Metal Thangz,
Hoover,
The Gun Club,
Excepter,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
June Days,
Oneida,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Techniques,
UT,
Bang On A Can,
Masters at Work,
The Leaves,
The Doobie Brothers,
Organ,
Slave,
Ultra Naté,
kango's stein massive,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Von Mondo,
Sällskapet,
Laurel Aitken,
World's Most,
Soft Machine,
The Mummies,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
K-Klass,
Mantronix,
One Last Wish,
Monks,
The Flesh Eaters,
David McCallum,
48th St. Collective,
Throbbing Gristle,
Tommy Roe,
Bush Tetras,
Dorothy Ashby,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Real Kids,
The Skatalites,
Neil Young,
Flipper,
Bauhaus,
Fluxion,
Joey Negro,
Sandy B,
Todd Terry,
Tropical Tobacco,
Magazine,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Jeff Mills,
Cecil Taylor,
Q65,
Minor Threat,
JFA,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Electric Prunes,
Icehouse,
Donald Byrd,
The J.B.'s,
The Shadows of Knight, The Shadows of Knight, The Shadows of Knight, The Shadows of Knight.
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.