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 Malaysia and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Jacques Brel to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Roxette. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Grass Roots record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 marimba and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sam Rivers 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?
Gregory Isaacs,
Heaven 17,
Aswad,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Michelle Simonal,
Con Funk Shun,
Vainqueur,
Television,
Ten City,
The Motions,
Tears for Fears,
Suicide,
The Invisible,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Moody Blues,
Cal Tjader,
K-Klass,
Maleditus Sound,
Rites of Spring,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Blues Magoos,
Mary Jane Girls,
Althea and Donna,
Marvin Gaye,
Grauzone,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Simply Red,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Raincoats,
The Young Rascals,
DJ Style,
The Stooges,
Byron Stingily,
The Litter,
Jeff Lynne,
Massinfluence,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Sexual Harrassment,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Saints,
Davy DMX,
Infiniti,
Unrelated Segments,
Black Pus,
Can,
Popol Vuh,
The Dirtbombs,
Blake Baxter,
Ice-T,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Mo-Dettes,
Aaron Thompson,
Bang On A Can,
Alison Limerick,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Gabor Szabo,
The Standells,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Cecil Taylor.
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.