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 Sri Lanka and from Houston.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 T.S.O.L. to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Mighty Diamonds. All the underground hits.
All Pantaleimon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dual Sessions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Infiniti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Doors,
Don Cherry,
The Raincoats,
The Golliwogs,
Bill Near,
Wire,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Pharoah Sanders,
Glenn Branca,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Flamin' Groovies,
Skaos,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
T.S.O.L.,
Gang Green,
Anthony Braxton,
The Walker Brothers,
Echospace,
Eric B and Rakim,
Can,
Radiohead,
Barry Ungar,
John Lydon,
Black Flag,
The Evens,
Young Marble Giants,
Big Daddy Kane,
Public Enemy,
Lalo Schifrin,
X-101,
Easy Going,
Brand Nubian,
Mars,
Marc Almond,
Juan Atkins,
Icehouse,
Jeru the Damaja,
Crispian St. Peters,
Delta 5,
Hardrive,
Das Ding,
Brass Construction,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Simply Red,
Al Stewart,
Porter Ricks,
Nas,
Mark Hollis,
Sam Rivers,
Vladislav Delay,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Country Teasers,
Siglo XX,
the Sonics,
kango's stein massive,
Donny Hathaway,
Negative Approach,
Smog,
Lyres,
Wasted Youth,
Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti, Fela Kuti.
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.