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 Pakistan and from Woodstock.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Pet Shop Boys to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 The Residents. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glenn Branca record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blancmange record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scott Walker,
The Fortunes,
Ultra Naté,
The Moody Blues,
the Fania All-Stars,
Massinfluence,
Unwound,
Marmalade,
the Slits,
The New Christs,
John Cale,
The Smoke,
K-Klass,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Alton Ellis,
The Residents,
Faraquet,
The Vogues,
Maleditus Sound,
Rakim,
Kenny Larkin,
Althea and Donna,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Suburban Knight,
Alice Coltrane,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Sexual Harrassment,
Youth Brigade,
The Associates,
Pulsallama,
Gang Gang Dance,
Lebanon Hanover,
David Bowie,
Newcleus,
Camouflage,
The Young Rascals,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
10cc,
Fear,
Inner City,
The Victims,
Lindisfarne,
Flamin' Groovies,
Country Teasers,
James White and The Blacks,
Fad Gadget,
Marcia Griffiths,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
New Order,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Star Department,
Excepter,
Grauzone,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
David Axelrod,
Don Cherry,
Ornette Coleman,
Scion,
The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Diamonds.
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.