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 India and from Beijing.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Maurizio to the funk 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 The Kinks. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neil Young & Crazy Horse record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Hill,
Patti Smith,
Aswad,
The Alarm Clocks,
Michelle Simonal,
Ludus,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bill Wells,
The Vogues,
Fugazi,
Malaria!,
Ten City,
Lower 48,
The Count Five,
Heaven 17,
The Fugs,
Eli Mardock,
Cheater Slicks,
Barbara Tucker,
Kerri Chandler,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Drexciya,
One Last Wish,
Negative Approach,
Oneida,
Bootsy Collins,
Con Funk Shun,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Crash Course in Science,
Qualms,
Royal Trux,
Pole,
The Techniques,
the Normal,
Fear,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Jimmy McGriff,
Roger Hodgson,
Pharoah Sanders,
Joey Negro,
Brand Nubian,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Barracudas,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Sister Nancy,
In Retrospect,
The Last Poets,
Al Stewart,
Sound Behaviour,
The Modern Lovers,
Alison Limerick,
Gang Green,
Kenny Larkin,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Vainqueur,
Juan Atkins,
Dawn Penn,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Saccharine Trust,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Searchers,
Crime, Crime, Crime, Crime.
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.