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 Kiribati 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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 The Moody Blues to the punk 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 Al Stewart. All the underground hits.
All Terrestrial Tones tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 clarinet and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Davy DMX record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Fugs,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Last Poets,
Letta Mbulu,
June Days,
Toni Rubio,
Pere Ubu,
The Divine Comedy,
10cc,
Essential Logic,
the Normal,
EPMD,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Barracudas,
The Victims,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Amazonics,
Chris & Cosey,
Donny Hathaway,
China Crisis,
Can,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Al Stewart,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Wake,
Eden Ahbez,
Section 25,
Kenny Larkin,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Slick Rick,
Massinfluence,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Human League,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Khruangbin,
Jeff Mills,
Camberwell Now,
Bronski Beat,
Stetsasonic,
Young Marble Giants,
Rod Modell,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
the Soft Cell,
Ten City,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Fat Boys,
The Move,
Cameo,
Pulsallama,
The Cure,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Royal Trux,
Ralphi Rosario,
Judy Mowatt,
Maleditus Sound,
The Fortunes,
Gang of Four,
Procol Harum,
Curtis Mayfield,
Mark Hollis,
The Dirtbombs,
Neu!,
Smog, Smog, Smog, Smog.
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.