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 Brazil and from New York.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Heaven 17. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Suburban Knight 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stetsasonic,
Swell Maps,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Procol Harum,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Trojans,
Faust,
Gil Scott Heron,
Cluster,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Red Krayola,
The Star Department,
The Fugs,
Shoche,
Roy Ayers,
the Slits,
Lungfish,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
D'Angelo,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Black Dice,
Ossler,
Sex Pistols,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Sandy B,
Glambeats Corp.,
Bush Tetras,
Vladislav Delay,
The Blackbyrds,
Eli Mardock,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bill Near,
Wire,
the Germs,
Mary Jane Girls,
Tropical Tobacco,
Dual Sessions,
Rotary Connection,
Aural Exciters,
Chris & Cosey,
Unwound,
Surgeon,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Robert Wyatt,
Toni Rubio,
Alphaville,
Frankie Knuckles,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Hasil Adkins,
Cecil Taylor,
Funky Four + One,
Eddi Front,
Sound Behaviour,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Isaac Hayes,
8 Eyed Spy,
Wolf Eyes,
The Fuzztones,
Skriet,
Animal Collective,
Davy DMX,
T. Rex,
Spoonie Gee,
Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins.
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.