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 Qatar 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 1961 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 harpsichord 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 Liaisons Dangereuses to the dance 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 Be Bop Deluxe. All the underground hits.
All Cecil Taylor tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Sherman 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pussy Galore record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slave,
Parry Music,
Ronan,
Scion,
Lyres,
Audionom,
Franke,
Joey Negro,
The Fortunes,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Blake Baxter,
Average White Band,
Liliput,
Tommy Roe,
Kas Product,
Mission of Burma,
Massinfluence,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Mojo Men,
Bill Near,
Bizarre Inc.,
Banda Bassotti,
Gastr Del Sol,
Ultravox,
Pulsallama,
Sonny Sharrock,
Soft Machine,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Maurizio,
The Music Machine,
Moby Grape,
The Sonics,
The Red Krayola,
Al Stewart,
The Cramps,
Blancmange,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Slits,
Warren Ellis,
The Cowsills,
UT,
Colin Newman,
Soul Sonic Force,
Monks,
Barclay James Harvest,
Dark Day,
The Grass Roots,
T.S.O.L.,
The Modern Lovers,
MC5,
Peter & Gordon,
The Fuzztones,
Simply Red,
Pere Ubu,
Erykah Badu,
The Residents,
the Human League,
the Bar-Kays,
Cameo,
Half Japanese,
Ten City,
The Leaves,
Faust, Faust, Faust, Faust.
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.