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 Micronesia and from Tehran.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the techno 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 Maurizio. All the underground hits.
All Gang Starr tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Wake 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Essential Logic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
Todd Terry,
Marc Almond,
Cluster,
Joy Division,
E-Dancer,
Metal Thangz,
Surgeon,
X-102,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lightning Bolt,
Los Fastidios,
Supertramp,
Soul II Soul,
the Soft Cell,
Masters at Work,
Echospace,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Crispian St. Peters,
Johnny Clarke,
Ultimate Spinach,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Matthew Halsall,
Pussy Galore,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Theoretical Girls,
Underground Resistance,
Gabor Szabo,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Smoke,
Ronnie Foster,
Wasted Youth,
Slave,
Howard Jones,
James White and The Blacks,
Khruangbin,
Mission of Burma,
Little Man,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Alton Ellis,
Sight & Sound,
Sixth Finger,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Franke,
Parry Music,
The Monochrome Set,
The Monks,
Radio Birdman,
Lungfish,
Sonny Sharrock,
Blossom Toes,
T. Rex,
Isaac Hayes,
Scrapy,
Ultravox,
DJ Sneak,
Eli Mardock,
DNA,
Anthony Braxton,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi, Fugazi.
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.