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 East Timor and from Winnipeg.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Soft Machine to the grime 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 Derrick Morgan. All the underground hits.
All Bill Near tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deakin record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a T. Rex record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Happenings,
Shoche,
Brass Construction,
Echospace,
Gong,
Scientists,
Ossler,
The Gap Band,
Brick,
Darondo,
Sight & Sound,
The Gladiators,
Quando Quango,
Frankie Knuckles,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Leonard Cohen,
The Cure,
The Monochrome Set,
kango's stein massive,
Roxy Music,
The Move,
Chris Corsano,
Interpol,
Cybotron,
Q and Not U,
June of 44,
The Toasters,
Scott Walker,
Wings,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
James White and The Blacks,
X-101,
Derrick May,
World's Most,
Section 25,
Roy Ayers,
Cecil Taylor,
Boogie Down Productions,
Metal Thangz,
Vainqueur,
Surgeon,
Severed Heads,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Eddi Front,
Rhythm & Sound,
New Age Steppers,
Lalann,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Slits,
The Durutti Column,
Joe Smooth,
China Crisis,
Terry Callier,
Piero Umiliani,
Marc Almond,
These Immortal Souls,
Jerry's Kids,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
OOIOO,
Goldenarms,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Rekid,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.