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 Kenya and from Lagos.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Delhi.
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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Zero Boys to the electroclash 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 cv313. All the underground hits.
All Mission of Burma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Severed Heads record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 güiro and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nation of Ulysses record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rufus Thomas,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Can,
Chris Corsano,
Althea and Donna,
Royal Trux,
The Cure,
Radiopuhelimet,
Fugazi,
Soulsonic Force,
Black Sheep,
Bill Near,
Kurtis Blow,
Joensuu 1685,
Camouflage,
Donald Byrd,
The Leaves,
Don Cherry,
Dennis Brown,
Schoolly D,
The Velvet Underground,
Bad Manners,
The Associates,
Scientists,
Maurizio,
The Vogues,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Blackbyrds,
James White and The Blacks,
Cymande,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Bush Tetras,
the Fania All-Stars,
Cameo,
Pierre Henry,
Wire,
The Real Kids,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Panda Bear,
Von Mondo,
Smog,
Easy Going,
Jeff Mills,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Lalann,
Popol Vuh,
Gang Starr,
Swell Maps,
Japan,
The Last Poets,
Marc Almond,
The Searchers,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Walker Brothers,
Roxette,
Blake Baxter,
Piero Umiliani,
H. Thieme,
Big Daddy Kane,
Fat Boys,
Grey Daturas,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Duran Duran, Duran Duran, Duran Duran, Duran Duran.
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.