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 Kosovo and from Johannesburg.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Eli Mardock to the dance kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 DJ Sneak. All the underground hits.
All Brass Construction tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Warsaw 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 sitar and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Piero Umiliani record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lakeside,
Donny Hathaway,
Organ,
The Standells,
Newcleus,
Pagans,
Ronnie Foster,
Black Flag,
Mandrill,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Kerrie Biddell,
Avey Tare,
The Velvet Underground,
Patti Smith,
Angry Samoans,
The Skatalites,
Joey Negro,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Siglo XX,
Mission of Burma,
Cameo,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Stereo Dub,
Al Stewart,
Howard Jones,
Derrick May,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Negative Approach,
The Fuzztones,
The Invisible,
Skarface,
Kurtis Blow,
Big Daddy Kane,
Sarah Menescal,
8 Eyed Spy,
Fat Boys,
Roger Hodgson,
Danielle Patucci,
Pulsallama,
Tubeway Army,
Japan,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
the Normal,
Moebius,
Curtis Mayfield,
Pantytec,
The Grass Roots,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Von Mondo,
DNA,
X-Ray Spex,
Delta 5,
Idris Muhammad,
Minny Pops,
Robert Hood,
Glenn Branca,
Clear Light,
The New Christs,
Ituana,
Rapeman,
Index,
Warsaw,
Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd, Donald Byrd.
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.