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 United States and from Woodstock.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Warren Ellis to the rap 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 Soul II Soul. All the underground hits.
All Skarface tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every KRS-One record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Peter & Gordon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Crime,
Drexciya,
Underground Resistance,
Nation of Ulysses,
Can,
R.M.O.,
Average White Band,
Glambeats Corp.,
Hashim,
James White and The Blacks,
The Black Dice,
Mo-Dettes,
Quadrant,
X-Ray Spex,
Todd Terry,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Guru Guru,
The Velvet Underground,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Symarip,
Man Eating Sloth,
Rod Modell,
Barry Ungar,
Traffic Nightmare,
Robert Hood,
Rites of Spring,
Mars,
Buzzcocks,
Michelle Simonal,
Aural Exciters,
The Sound,
Nik Kershaw,
Saccharine Trust,
The Trojans,
Urselle,
Patti Smith,
Tears for Fears,
Brick,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Adolescents,
Animal Collective,
The Smoke,
the Sonics,
Pantytec,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Tomorrow,
Lindisfarne,
The United States of America,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
CMW,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Blossom Toes,
Masters at Work,
Agent Orange,
Bronski Beat,
Hardrive,
Minutemen,
Soul Sonic Force,
Index,
Pylon, Pylon, Pylon, Pylon.
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.