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 Costa Rica and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the sitar 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 Lou Reed & John Cale to the grime kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Alarm Clocks. All the underground hits.
All The Angels of Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Girls At Our Best! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jerry Gold Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blancmange,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Dorothy Ashby,
Royal Trux,
Whodini,
The Five Americans,
Heaven 17,
the Soft Cell,
Babytalk,
Mad Mike,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Minor Threat,
Boredoms,
Eric Copeland,
Animal Collective,
Laurel Aitken,
Crash Course in Science,
Ornette Coleman,
Moss Icon,
the Association,
Ronnie Foster,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Residents,
Kas Product,
Roxette,
Suburban Knight,
Gabor Szabo,
KRS-One,
Faust,
Juan Atkins,
Little Man,
Lower 48,
Minutemen,
Donald Byrd,
DJ Style,
The Black Dice,
Patti Smith,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
8 Eyed Spy,
Neu!,
This Heat,
Blossom Toes,
Erasure,
Tom Boy,
Grandmaster Flash,
Radiohead,
The Golliwogs,
Andrew Hill,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Maleditus Sound,
Skaos,
Q65,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Bush Tetras,
Crispy Ambulance,
Angry Samoans,
Eric Dolphy,
Gong,
Oneida,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.