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 Somalia and from Philadelphia.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 clarinet 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 Cheater Slicks to the grime 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Womack tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tomorrow record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Freddie Wadling,
Siglo XX,
the Fania All-Stars,
Rotary Connection,
The Slits,
Main Source,
Delon & Dalcan,
Carl Craig,
Roxy Music,
the Normal,
Echospace,
Tommy Roe,
Sugar Minott,
Wings,
Peter & Gordon,
Mary Jane Girls,
Chris Corsano,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Leaves,
Rakim,
The Kinks,
Patti Smith,
Niagra,
Spoonie Gee,
Dark Day,
Kool Moe Dee,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Nas,
Bauhaus,
The Misunderstood,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Marine Girls,
The Stooges,
The Index,
The Real Kids,
The Knickerbockers,
the Germs,
Arcadia,
Absolute Body Control,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Inner City,
Pylon,
Howard Jones,
Soulsonic Force,
Skarface,
Zero Boys,
E-Dancer,
Supertramp,
Lightning Bolt,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Blossom Toes,
the Swans,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
H. Thieme,
Mr. Review,
Morten Harket,
David McCallum,
Kevin Saunderson,
Anthony Braxton,
Mars, Mars, Mars, Mars.
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.