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 Indonesia and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 Spokane and Beijing.
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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Donald Byrd to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Thompson Twins. All the underground hits.
All Ornette Coleman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Banda Bassotti record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Second Layer record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Seeds,
Organ,
Echospace,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Motions,
Black Pus,
The Skatalites,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
David McCallum,
James White and The Blacks,
The Trojans,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Leaves,
Accadde A,
Theoretical Girls,
T. Rex,
Minutemen,
Prince Buster,
Lou Christie,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Dirtbombs,
Iggy Pop,
PIL,
Jandek,
Intrusion,
Quantec,
Japan,
June Days,
Archie Shepp,
Minny Pops,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Danielle Patucci,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Eve St. Jones,
The Alarm Clocks,
Agitation Free,
Subhumans,
Suicide,
Cecil Taylor,
Sonic Youth,
The Barracudas,
Harry Pussy,
Sound Behaviour,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Au Pairs,
Sparks,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Lungfish,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Flesh Eaters,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Monolake,
Desert Stars,
Ice-T,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Television Personalities,
Janne Schatter,
Zero Boys,
Graham Central Station,
Supertramp,
Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science.
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.