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 Belgium and from Lille.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Milan.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Crispy Ambulance to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sound Behaviour record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Electric Prunes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Moleskins,
Donald Byrd,
Idris Muhammad,
Bobby Womack,
Alice Coltrane,
Faraquet,
Essential Logic,
Ludus,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Detroit Cobras,
Thee Headcoats,
Deadbeat,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Dark Day,
Banda Bassotti,
Basic Channel,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Dead C,
Todd Rundgren,
Parry Music,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Black Pus,
Public Image Ltd.,
Tomorrow,
Intrusion,
Bang On A Can,
R.M.O.,
The Blackbyrds,
Country Teasers,
Arthur Verocai,
Theoretical Girls,
Heaven 17,
The Saints,
Whodini,
Rosa Yemen,
Pere Ubu,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Kinks,
Fad Gadget,
The Techniques,
Kas Product,
Lindisfarne,
KRS-One,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Harry Pussy,
Guru Guru,
Cal Tjader,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Gabor Szabo,
Eric Dolphy,
Albert Ayler,
Marmalade,
The Shadows of Knight,
Wolf Eyes,
La Düsseldorf,
The Human League,
Shoche,
John Cale,
Freddie Wadling,
U.S. Maple,
Piero Umiliani,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Niagra, Niagra, Niagra, Niagra.
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.