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 Azerbaijan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the 808 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 Rites of Spring to the dance 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 Scientists. All the underground hits.
All Black Sheep tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Public Enemy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Chocolate Watch Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gap Band,
Deepchord,
Quantec,
Sonny Sharrock,
Albert Ayler,
Arcadia,
Thompson Twins,
The Cure,
Lower 48,
Stereo Dub,
the Sonics,
The Saints,
Eurythmics,
La Düsseldorf,
Zapp,
UT,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Echospace,
Janne Schatter,
K-Klass,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Main Source,
Mars,
Scientists,
Urselle,
Dark Day,
The Divine Comedy,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Leaves,
KRS-One,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Human League,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Cowsills,
The Victims,
MC5,
June Days,
Quadrant,
The Associates,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
DJ Sneak,
Bill Near,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sonic Youth,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Real Kids,
Letta Mbulu,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Scrapy,
Ituana,
Rod Modell,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Panda Bear,
The Litter,
The Tremeloes,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Brass Construction,
Robert Wyatt,
Accadde A,
Avey Tare,
Chris Corsano,
Harpers Bizarre,
Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5, Delta 5.
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.