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 Latvia and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Josef K to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Drexciya. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Motions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Junior Murvin record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kerri Chandler,
cv313,
Oblivians,
Harpers Bizarre,
Magazine,
Soul Sonic Force,
Matthew Halsall,
Mary Jane Girls,
Eurythmics,
Chrome,
Gabor Szabo,
Japan,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Monochrome Set,
The Doobie Brothers,
Joyce Sims,
Electric Prunes,
the Bar-Kays,
The Detroit Cobras,
Tres Demented,
The Fire Engines,
Soft Machine,
Main Source,
Toni Rubio,
Massinfluence,
Graham Central Station,
Barrington Levy,
Joy Division,
Hot Snakes,
Accadde A,
Deakin,
Crash Course in Science,
Cecil Taylor,
Shoche,
The Real Kids,
David McCallum,
Funkadelic,
Janne Schatter,
Nils Olav,
the Slits,
Steve Hackett,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Cale,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Technova,
Nas,
Brass Construction,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
the Germs,
Gang Green,
Iggy Pop,
The Velvet Underground,
The Mummies,
Mark Hollis,
Donny Hathaway,
Theoretical Girls,
JFA,
Bluetip,
Davy DMX,
Depeche Mode,
Skarface, Skarface, Skarface, Skarface.
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.