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 Portugal and from Bologna.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 clarinet 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 Dorothy Ashby to the dance kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Audionom. All the underground hits.
All China Crisis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Soft Cell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Move record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Janne Schatter,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Heaven 17,
Agent Orange,
Model 500,
Marc Almond,
New Age Steppers,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Minutemen,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Techniques,
Fat Boys,
Swans,
Make Up,
Susan Cadogan,
Cybotron,
Kurtis Blow,
This Heat,
The Residents,
the Sonics,
D'Angelo,
OOIOO,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Lou Reed,
Adolescents,
Glambeats Corp.,
Isaac Hayes,
Lightning Bolt,
Sister Nancy,
Todd Rundgren,
DJ Style,
Faraquet,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Slackers,
Brass Construction,
Big Daddy Kane,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Toni Rubio,
The Buckinghams,
Juan Atkins,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pierre Henry,
Sound Behaviour,
Royal Trux,
Junior Murvin,
Rekid,
Cal Tjader,
The Doobie Brothers,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Busters,
Don Cherry,
Altered Images,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Bush Tetras,
Whodini,
The Cowsills,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Grey Daturas,
Danielle Patucci,
Ken Boothe,
The Skatalites, The Skatalites, The Skatalites, The Skatalites.
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.