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 Niger and from Columbus.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 clarinet 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 Liliput to the crunk 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 Gang Gang Dance. All the underground hits.
All Peter and Kerry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every L. Decosne 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lee Hazlewood record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pole,
Peter and Kerry,
Dead Boys,
Con Funk Shun,
Quadrant,
ABC,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Electric Prunes,
Dark Day,
Donald Byrd,
Stetsasonic,
Lucky Dragons,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Fall,
The Mummies,
Das Ding,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
New Order,
Johnny Clarke,
Lower 48,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Black Bananas,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Sarah Menescal,
Pantaleimon,
UT,
Gil Scott Heron,
Girls At Our Best!,
F. McDonald,
Aural Exciters,
David McCallum,
Maleditus Sound,
Sugar Minott,
Moebius,
Jawbox,
Japan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Crash Course in Science,
Brick,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Isaac Hayes,
FM Einheit,
Inner City,
DNA,
Lyres,
Newcleus,
T.S.O.L.,
Supertramp,
The Young Rascals,
Tres Demented,
The Divine Comedy,
Gang of Four,
Eddi Front,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Joensuu 1685,
Sixth Finger,
the Bar-Kays,
The Toasters,
Kool Moe Dee,
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.