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 Ireland and from Jakarta.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Delta 5 to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Camberwell Now. All the underground hits.
All Yaz tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Malaria! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pulsallama record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lee Hazlewood,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Albert Ayler,
The Slits,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Kinks,
Shuggie Otis,
Suburban Knight,
Arcadia,
The Toasters,
LL Cool J,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Gun Club,
Malaria!,
Shoche,
Fat Boys,
The Slackers,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Tommy Roe,
Donald Byrd,
Black Bananas,
The Selecter,
Eddi Front,
Aural Exciters,
Soul Sonic Force,
Harmonia,
Grey Daturas,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Soul II Soul,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Walker Brothers,
Desert Stars,
E-Dancer,
Kurtis Blow,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Animal Collective,
The Divine Comedy,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sound Behaviour,
Niagra,
Girls At Our Best!,
Susan Cadogan,
Isaac Hayes,
Soft Machine,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Suicide,
Tropical Tobacco,
Fugazi,
Reagan Youth,
Parry Music,
The Real Kids,
Rufus Thomas,
Sandy B,
Bush Tetras,
Nico,
the Bar-Kays,
Yusef Lateef,
Gastr Del Sol,
Hashim,
Archie Shepp,
Inner City,
Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen.
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.