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 Haiti 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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Calgary.
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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 James White and The Blacks to the rap 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 The Dead C. All the underground hits.
All Altered Images tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Accadde A record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neu! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Carl Craig,
Soulsonic Force,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Music Machine,
Shuggie Otis,
Warsaw,
The Skatalites,
The Buckinghams,
Lungfish,
X-101,
Scratch Acid,
Inner City,
Marmalade,
The Young Rascals,
Bill Near,
JFA,
Smog,
In Retrospect,
Matthew Halsall,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
X-Ray Spex,
This Heat,
Swans,
John Cale,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Frankie Knuckles,
Robert Hood,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Isaac Hayes,
Fear,
Jeff Mills,
The Kinks,
Marcia Griffiths,
Chris Corsano,
Sonic Youth,
Warren Ellis,
The Detroit Cobras,
Joy Division,
Young Marble Giants,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Lindisfarne,
The Sonics,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Divine Comedy,
Metal Thangz,
The Dave Clark Five,
Charles Mingus,
Jeff Lynne,
MDC,
FM Einheit,
Vainqueur,
The Martian,
The Gladiators,
Eric Copeland,
The Motions,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Barracudas,
Jawbox,
Mission of Burma,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.