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 Palau and from Shanghai.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Marshall Jefferson to the punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Doors. All the underground hits.
All John Holt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Porter Ricks 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Godley & Creme,
Magazine,
Tears for Fears,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Associates,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Fluxion,
Flamin' Groovies,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Gun Club,
Young Marble Giants,
Quadrant,
Make Up,
ABC,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bootsy Collins,
KRS-One,
Scion,
Porter Ricks,
Organ,
The Walker Brothers,
Dennis Brown,
Bobby Womack,
Reagan Youth,
Cecil Taylor,
Vladislav Delay,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Normal,
Funky Four + One,
Sun Ra,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Schoolly D,
Blake Baxter,
Pantytec,
Alphaville,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Hasil Adkins,
Henry Cow,
The Alarm Clocks,
Cal Tjader,
Hashim,
Joyce Sims,
Black Moon,
Guru Guru,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The United States of America,
Man Parrish,
Throbbing Gristle,
Stetsasonic,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Infiniti,
Brick,
Harmonia,
The Red Krayola,
David Axelrod,
Scratch Acid,
Tres Demented,
Ralphi Rosario,
Sight & Sound,
The Move,
The Grass Roots,
The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas, The Barracudas.
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.