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 Mauritania and from Beijing.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Busters 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 Ash Ra Tempel. All the underground hits.
All Rod Modell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chris & Cosey record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rekid record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Pretty Things,
The Flesh Eaters,
Scion,
Pantytec,
Essential Logic,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Althea and Donna,
Nirvana,
Sound Behaviour,
Oblivians,
Dawn Penn,
Procol Harum,
Soft Cell,
Charles Mingus,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ludus,
Joyce Sims,
Leonard Cohen,
Depeche Mode,
Toni Rubio,
Bobby Sherman,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Anakelly,
Quantec,
Lou Christie,
The Dirtbombs,
Maleditus Sound,
The Angels of Light,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Dennis Brown,
Wire,
Bootsy Collins,
Von Mondo,
Curtis Mayfield,
Spandau Ballet,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
ABBA,
Khruangbin,
Suicide,
Ultimate Spinach,
Funky Four + One,
Hardrive,
Fela Kuti,
Max Romeo,
Sarah Menescal,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Quando Quango,
Public Enemy,
Soulsonic Force,
Radiohead,
Royal Trux,
Zapp,
Amazonics,
Jacob Miller,
Aloha Tigers,
Amon Düül II,
Harmonia,
Al Stewart,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.