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 Malta and from Lagos.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Throbbing Gristle to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic. All the underground hits.
All Reuben Wilson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cosmic Jokers 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Moody Blues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric B and Rakim,
Television Personalities,
Roy Ayers,
Stereo Dub,
Joe Smooth,
Arthur Verocai,
Pulsallama,
the Swans,
Steve Hackett,
Fifty Foot Hose,
In Retrospect,
Brothers Johnson,
Unwound,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Gichy Dan,
The Real Kids,
The Fall,
Cymande,
Isaac Hayes,
Byron Stingily,
Basic Channel,
Sex Pistols,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Janne Schatter,
Vainqueur,
Jacques Brel,
Tommy Roe,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Wings,
Slave,
Drive Like Jehu,
Agent Orange,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Associates,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Franke,
Todd Terry,
Patti Smith,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Kaleidoscope,
John Coltrane,
Lalo Schifrin,
OOIOO,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Wire,
The Trojans,
Severed Heads,
Skriet,
Stetsasonic,
Gabor Szabo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Human League,
Dual Sessions,
Stiv Bators,
Flipper,
Bobby Sherman,
Model 500,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Jeff Mills,
Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys.
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.