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 Niger and from Columbus.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Barry Ungar. All the underground hits.
All Swell Maps tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Goldenarms record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jimmy McGriff record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scott Walker,
Wally Richardson,
Kurtis Blow,
The Blackbyrds,
David Bowie,
The Star Department,
Gang of Four,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Morten Harket,
Marine Girls,
Electric Prunes,
Harry Pussy,
the Soft Cell,
X-Ray Spex,
AZ,
Faust,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Reuben Wilson,
Supertramp,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Gap Band,
Laurel Aitken,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Mummies,
The Buckinghams,
Piero Umiliani,
The Monks,
Joey Negro,
Barbara Tucker,
Sex Pistols,
Cheater Slicks,
Mr. Review,
Peter & Gordon,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Terry Callier,
Scrapy,
Theoretical Girls,
Parry Music,
the Bar-Kays,
Funky Four + One,
Half Japanese,
Pantaleimon,
DNA,
Black Sheep,
The Moleskins,
The Shadows of Knight,
Spandau Ballet,
The New Christs,
Frankie Knuckles,
Maleditus Sound,
Stiv Bators,
Idris Muhammad,
R.M.O.,
Crime,
The Music Machine,
Agent Orange,
The Busters,
Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub.
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.