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 Tuvalu 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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
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 EPMD to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Wings. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soul II Soul record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb 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 Divine Comedy,
Yazoo,
Fatback Band,
Suicide,
Cameo,
Albert Ayler,
Cluster,
H. Thieme,
Colin Newman,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Quantec,
Bill Near,
Q and Not U,
Andrew Hill,
Camouflage,
Derrick May,
Moebius,
Depeche Mode,
Yaz,
Aloha Tigers,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Barry Ungar,
Barbara Tucker,
Letta Mbulu,
Sex Pistols,
The Last Poets,
Desert Stars,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Lightning Bolt,
Massinfluence,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Seeds,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Bad Manners,
The Tremeloes,
The Golliwogs,
La Düsseldorf,
DJ Sneak,
Sexual Harrassment,
Brand Nubian,
Skarface,
Newcleus,
Bush Tetras,
Joe Smooth,
Yellowson,
Joey Negro,
Silicon Teens,
Gastr Del Sol,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Pantytec,
Shuggie Otis,
OOIOO,
Sun City Girls,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Moleskins,
Rufus Thomas,
Bob Dylan,
Duran Duran,
Grauzone,
The Blues Magoos,
Pere Ubu,
Slick Rick,
Echo & the Bunnymen, Echo & the Bunnymen, Echo & the Bunnymen, Echo & the Bunnymen.
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.