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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Tehran.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Kurtis Blow to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Mojo Men record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 marimba and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cluster record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Blackbyrds,
Das Ding,
Amon Düül,
Andrew Hill,
Reuben Wilson,
Model 500,
Soft Cell,
Monolake,
Pharoah Sanders,
Leonard Cohen,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Cluster,
Symarip,
Agitation Free,
Marine Girls,
Patti Smith,
The Red Krayola,
Surgeon,
Scion,
The Victims,
Smog,
Neil Young,
Lou Reed,
Johnny Osbourne,
Echospace,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Kerri Chandler,
Tim Buckley,
Bush Tetras,
Siglo XX,
The Index,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Dirtbombs,
Swell Maps,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Second Layer,
MC5,
Oblivians,
Grey Daturas,
UT,
Sonic Youth,
Alice Coltrane,
Sex Pistols,
The Buckinghams,
The Durutti Column,
Cybotron,
The Human League,
Bill Near,
Tom Boy,
Big Daddy Kane,
Absolute Body Control,
Pet Shop Boys,
Easy Going,
Joy Division,
Connie Case,
The Cure,
The Slackers,
Rufus Thomas,
the Association,
the Swans,
Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich.
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.