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 Singapore and from Mumbai.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the sitar 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 Rites of Spring to the punk 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 Curtis Mayfield. All the underground hits.
All Quantec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lower 48 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Minutemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Wells,
Underground Resistance,
Alton Ellis,
The Techniques,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Slick Rick,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Howard Jones,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Mission of Burma,
Guru Guru,
Rosa Yemen,
Sonny Sharrock,
Boogie Down Productions,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Smiths,
Pantytec,
Camouflage,
Crime,
Quadrant,
The Residents,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Pylon,
Alphaville,
Anakelly,
The Cowsills,
The Buckinghams,
The Seeds,
Maurizio,
Interpol,
Sam Rivers,
Jeru the Damaja,
Pulsallama,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Fela Kuti,
Make Up,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Fuzztones,
Television,
Sex Pistols,
Moby Grape,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Radio Birdman,
Con Funk Shun,
The Slits,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
X-Ray Spex,
New Age Steppers,
Cecil Taylor,
Alice Coltrane,
Blancmange,
The Human League,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Germs,
Rod Modell,
Surgeon,
Talk Talk,
Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins, Thompson Twins.
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.