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 Latvia and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 mellotron 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 DNA to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Cluster. All the underground hits.
All Cameo tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glenn Branca record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Panda Bear record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Newcleus,
Young Marble Giants,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Mo-Dettes,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Last Poets,
The Buckinghams,
Lou Christie,
In Retrospect,
Ituana,
Second Layer,
Lower 48,
Deepchord,
Tubeway Army,
Banda Bassotti,
Erykah Badu,
Sam Rivers,
This Heat,
Vainqueur,
Bill Near,
Guru Guru,
Todd Rundgren,
Bluetip,
Rakim,
Marine Girls,
Howard Jones,
Derrick May,
Minutemen,
Theoretical Girls,
Cybotron,
Joe Smooth,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Invisible,
Morten Harket,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Velvet Underground,
Matthew Bourne,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Saints,
Hasil Adkins,
Fela Kuti,
Cluster,
Rosa Yemen,
Bobby Byrd,
Blake Baxter,
Todd Terry,
Yazoo,
Moebius,
Little Man,
The Monks,
Tres Demented,
The Divine Comedy,
Nick Fraelich,
The Neon Judgement,
The Blackbyrds,
Royal Trux,
Brass Construction,
Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin, Khruangbin.
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.