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 Rwanda and from Sao Paulo.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the 808 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 MDC to the jazz 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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All EPMD tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Cale 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Standells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skarface,
EPMD,
Ludus,
Dawn Penn,
Subhumans,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Raincoats,
Underground Resistance,
Bauhaus,
Gregory Isaacs,
Clear Light,
Crispy Ambulance,
Sight & Sound,
MC5,
L. Decosne,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Fugs,
John Coltrane,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Cybotron,
Rakim,
Arthur Verocai,
Section 25,
Terry Callier,
Buzzcocks,
Minor Threat,
Echospace,
Lyres,
Pantaleimon,
Pharoah Sanders,
Gastr Del Sol,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Barracudas,
Bizarre Inc.,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Carl Craig,
Hashim,
Theoretical Girls,
Ultra Naté,
Eli Mardock,
Graham Central Station,
Charles Mingus,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Trojans,
Toni Rubio,
X-101,
The American Breed,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Amon Düül,
The Star Department,
The Saints,
the Normal,
The Index,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Sound,
The Birthday Party,
Excepter,
Warren Ellis,
World's Most,
Smog,
Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman.
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.