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 Grenada and from Edmonton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Maleditus Sound to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Chris Corsano. All the underground hits.
All Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Oneida record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Curtis Mayfield,
Hardrive,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Pretty Things,
This Heat,
Minor Threat,
Max Romeo,
The Barracudas,
Talk Talk,
The Wake,
The Neon Judgement,
Sun Ra,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Trojans,
Nas,
Zero Boys,
Amon Düül II,
Todd Terry,
Duran Duran,
Make Up,
Freddie Wadling,
Crime,
Swell Maps,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Gang Green,
The Selecter,
Ultravox,
Aaron Thompson,
The Golliwogs,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
K-Klass,
Ultimate Spinach,
Yusef Lateef,
X-102,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Frankie Knuckles,
Man Eating Sloth,
Throbbing Gristle,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Gang of Four,
Public Image Ltd.,
Dave Gahan,
The Fire Engines,
Spoonie Gee,
Lower 48,
Japan,
Country Teasers,
Erykah Badu,
Amon Düül,
Goldenarms,
Tres Demented,
Roxette,
Oblivians,
Ituana,
a-ha,
Marmalade,
Visage,
Gregory Isaacs,
Terrestrial Tones,
Procol Harum,
The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves.
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.