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 Madagascar and from Madrid.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Smoke to the grime 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 N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell. All the underground hits.
All Yusef Lateef tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Main Source 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Happenings record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Pet Shop Boys,
Aloha Tigers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Tropical Tobacco,
Duran Duran,
The Last Poets,
Neu!,
Jimmy McGriff,
Avey Tare,
Niagra,
Trumans Water,
Absolute Body Control,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Rufus Thomas,
Blancmange,
Gil Scott Heron,
Yusef Lateef,
Public Enemy,
Lalo Schifrin,
Loose Ends,
Kas Product,
The Smiths,
Young Marble Giants,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
T.S.O.L.,
The Searchers,
The Gun Club,
The Buckinghams,
AZ,
Kerri Chandler,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Sparks,
The Star Department,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Unrelated Segments,
Gastr Del Sol,
X-Ray Spex,
Danielle Patucci,
Sister Nancy,
The Red Krayola,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Clear Light,
Henry Cow,
Sound Behaviour,
Model 500,
Graham Central Station,
the Bar-Kays,
Andrew Hill,
Skriet,
Audionom,
Letta Mbulu,
Camberwell Now,
Morten Harket,
Silicon Teens,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Velvet Underground,
Johnny Osbourne,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Underground Resistance,
John Holt, John Holt, John Holt, John Holt.
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.