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 Montenegro and from Tehran.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
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 Zero Boys 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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Masters at Work tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Neon Judgement,
Quantec,
Banda Bassotti,
Ten City,
Davy DMX,
Carl Craig,
Gichy Dan,
Television Personalities,
Ultimate Spinach,
Heaven 17,
Half Japanese,
Parry Music,
Yazoo,
The Count Five,
Pierre Henry,
Eden Ahbez,
Ronan,
the Human League,
Au Pairs,
Eric B and Rakim,
Ornette Coleman,
Angry Samoans,
Crime,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Shoche,
The Human League,
Grauzone,
Hashim,
Vladislav Delay,
Scientists,
Fad Gadget,
Wasted Youth,
Zapp,
Los Fastidios,
John Coltrane,
Neu!,
Can,
Howard Jones,
The Index,
Hot Snakes,
The Monks,
Jandek,
Technova,
Scott Walker,
Tubeway Army,
The Alarm Clocks,
Guru Guru,
the Bar-Kays,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Mojo Men,
The Durutti Column,
Fear,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Tommy Roe,
Jacob Miller,
Ponytail,
Cameo,
Pet Shop Boys,
48th St. Collective,
The Skatalites,
Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke, Johnny Clarke.
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.