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 Fiji 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 1960 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the guitar 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 Lafayette Afro Rock Band to the grunge 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 Malaria!. All the underground hits.
All Tom Boy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Halsall,
Buzzcocks,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Scion,
Masters at Work,
Nas,
Thee Headcoats,
Clear Light,
Rakim,
John Foxx,
Nils Olav,
Arab on Radar,
Joe Finger,
Harpers Bizarre,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Selecter,
New Age Steppers,
the Bar-Kays,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
The Gladiators,
the Sonics,
The Kinks,
Sonic Youth,
Ossler,
Crash Course in Science,
Tubeway Army,
Gong,
The Blackbyrds,
Ice-T,
Flash Fearless,
The Offenders,
The Happenings,
Cymande,
Oneida,
China Crisis,
Ludus,
Brand Nubian,
The Busters,
Magma,
The Grass Roots,
Gil Scott Heron,
Scrapy,
Whodini,
48th St. Collective,
Sex Pistols,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Crooked Eye,
Tim Buckley,
Johnny Clarke,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Techniques,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Glambeats Corp.,
John Coltrane,
Porter Ricks,
Pylon,
Half Japanese,
Massinfluence,
Amazonics,
Lyres, Lyres, Lyres, Lyres.
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.