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 Rwanda and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 arpeggiator 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 Black Sheep to the jazz 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 Anthony Braxton. All the underground hits.
All Animal Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every B.T. Express record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Blake Baxter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Spandau Ballet,
Marshall Jefferson,
Fugazi,
X-Ray Spex,
Sixth Finger,
Minor Threat,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Residents,
Japan,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The United States of America,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sun City Girls,
Ultra Naté,
Smog,
the Slits,
Boogie Down Productions,
ABC,
the Swans,
The Human League,
Isaac Hayes,
A Certain Ratio,
Dennis Brown,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Lungfish,
Todd Rundgren,
Kaleidoscope,
Marcia Griffiths,
John Holt,
Johnny Clarke,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Yusef Lateef,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Nation of Ulysses,
X-102,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Alphaville,
The Wake,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Porter Ricks,
Soulsonic Force,
Swans,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Yazoo,
Crooked Eye,
Derrick Morgan,
Kurtis Blow,
Bush Tetras,
Outsiders,
The Walker Brothers,
Crispy Ambulance,
Jandek,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Gap Band,
Sarah Menescal,
Thompson Twins,
The Moleskins,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Leonard Cohen,
Cecil Taylor,
Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal, Michelle Simonal.
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.