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 the UAE and from Glasgow.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 güiro 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 Searchers to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Residents. All the underground hits.
All Maleditus Sound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rahsaan Roland Kirk 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Larry & the Blue Notes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
K-Klass,
Harpers Bizarre,
Mary Jane Girls,
Aswad,
Visage,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Shadows of Knight,
Sugar Minott,
Groovy Waters,
Connie Case,
Pierre Henry,
Cheater Slicks,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Aural Exciters,
Yaz,
Hasil Adkins,
the Fania All-Stars,
Rod Modell,
Scrapy,
Ralphi Rosario,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Albert Ayler,
The Doors,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Cosmic Jokers,
DNA,
Spoonie Gee,
Heaven 17,
Marcia Griffiths,
Sun Ra,
Gerry Rafferty,
Bad Manners,
Pagans,
The Dead C,
Nick Fraelich,
Interpol,
Banda Bassotti,
Animal Collective,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Reagan Youth,
Wally Richardson,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Mars,
Niagra,
Urselle,
Ronan,
Marshall Jefferson,
Soul II Soul,
Schoolly D,
Vladislav Delay,
The Five Americans,
Byron Stingily,
Wire,
Subhumans,
The Human League,
Black Flag,
Jeff Lynne,
Tears for Fears,
Thompson Twins,
Blake Baxter,
The Tremeloes,
Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus, Black Pus.
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.