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 Algeria and from Johannesburg.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Deadbeat to the rap 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 Barclay James Harvest. All the underground hits.
All Inner City tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Stooges record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nils Olav,
Black Flag,
Big Daddy Kane,
Bill Near,
Iggy Pop,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Sound,
The Red Krayola,
The Misunderstood,
The Pretty Things,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Index,
The Young Rascals,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Public Enemy,
Eli Mardock,
The Dirtbombs,
DNA,
Main Source,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Terry Callier,
Lalo Schifrin,
Delta 5,
Robert Wyatt,
Can,
Boredoms,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Birthday Party,
Neu!,
Crime,
Sound Behaviour,
Swell Maps,
Joy Division,
Nas,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
One Last Wish,
Danielle Patucci,
Grandmaster Flash,
Das Ding,
Toni Rubio,
R.M.O.,
Soul Sonic Force,
Gichy Dan,
Livin' Joy,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Lindisfarne,
10cc,
Connie Case,
The Doors,
Bob Dylan,
The Gories,
David McCallum,
Glenn Branca,
Johnny Clarke,
Angry Samoans,
Public Image Ltd.,
Easy Going,
Saccharine Trust,
Henry Cow,
Parry Music,
Piero Umiliani,
Moby Grape,
Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant, Quadrant.
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.