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 Nepal and from Hong Kong.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Sonic Youth to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Simply Red. All the underground hits.
All Vladislav Delay tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Throbbing Gristle record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Anthony Braxton record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
48th St. Collective,
Pagans,
The Fall,
The Alarm Clocks,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Procol Harum,
the Association,
Sällskapet,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Peter & Gordon,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Arcadia,
Leonard Cohen,
Glenn Branca,
Bauhaus,
Pole,
Jesper Dahlback,
L. Decosne,
Albert Ayler,
Hoover,
Joy Division,
The Buckinghams,
Hot Snakes,
Alice Coltrane,
The Selecter,
Connie Case,
Pere Ubu,
Banda Bassotti,
June Days,
Zapp,
The Busters,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Altered Images,
Lee Hazlewood,
Country Joe & The Fish,
ABC,
Excepter,
Kenny Larkin,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Tim Buckley,
Juan Atkins,
Malaria!,
Ludus,
Vainqueur,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Colin Newman,
Al Stewart,
The Kinks,
Supertramp,
Television,
Jeff Lynne,
Bootsy Collins,
Barbara Tucker,
Faust,
Tubeway Army,
The Angels of Light,
Lyres,
LL Cool J,
The Saints,
Interpol,
Kayak,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.