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 Norway and from Paris.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Erykah Badu to the rap 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 Archie Shepp. All the underground hits.
All Kerri Chandler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Barracudas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Country Joe & The Fish record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
Pharoah Sanders,
Minutemen,
Robert Görl,
Alphaville,
Hasil Adkins,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
The Young Rascals,
The Standells,
Jacob Miller,
Sex Pistols,
Minny Pops,
The Birthday Party,
Howard Jones,
X-Ray Spex,
New Order,
Harmonia,
R.M.O.,
Rapeman,
Boogie Down Productions,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Aswad,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Slackers,
Scratch Acid,
Johnny Clarke,
Young Marble Giants,
The Monochrome Set,
Youth Brigade,
Roxy Music,
Severed Heads,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Charles Mingus,
The Gories,
The Dead C,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Stetsasonic,
Groovy Waters,
Sparks,
U.S. Maple,
Can,
Simply Red,
Gregory Isaacs,
Bad Manners,
The J.B.'s,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Bobby Byrd,
Anakelly,
DJ Sneak,
PIL,
Rites of Spring,
The Kinks,
D'Angelo,
FM Einheit,
The Walker Brothers,
Excepter,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Crooked Eye,
the Human League,
The Selecter,
Man Eating Sloth,
Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode.
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.