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 Uruguay and from Salvador.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the oboe 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 Boredoms to the grunge 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 Gastr Del Sol. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ajijia Myrayebe 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alice Coltrane record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
Junior Murvin,
Thompson Twins,
Saccharine Trust,
The Durutti Column,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Subhumans,
Arthur Verocai,
Chris & Cosey,
The Monks,
Boredoms,
Magma,
The Grass Roots,
Underground Resistance,
Urselle,
Eric B and Rakim,
Rapeman,
Suburban Knight,
Dead Boys,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Index,
Procol Harum,
The Saints,
The Knickerbockers,
Scott Walker,
Jandek,
John Coltrane,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Pulsallama,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Judy Mowatt,
Letta Mbulu,
Chris Corsano,
Donny Hathaway,
Yaz,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Beau Brummels,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Heaven 17,
Kerri Chandler,
Fluxion,
Big Daddy Kane,
KRS-One,
Kevin Saunderson,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Tomorrow,
Altered Images,
Ossler,
The Slits,
48th St. Collective,
Drexciya,
Audionom,
Todd Terry,
The Seeds,
AZ,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Wings,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.