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 Armenia and from Tehran.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 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 Das Ding to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Michelle Simonal. All the underground hits.
All Art Ensemble Of Chicago tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Toni Rubio 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sisters of Mercy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Freddie Wadling,
Blossom Toes,
Archie Shepp,
Young Marble Giants,
Clear Light,
Jacques Brel,
Con Funk Shun,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Morten Harket,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Selecter,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Letta Mbulu,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Leaves,
The Associates,
Agitation Free,
Roxy Music,
Theoretical Girls,
Dawn Penn,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Babytalk,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Henry Cow,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The Victims,
Kurtis Blow,
Pet Shop Boys,
Rod Modell,
The Black Dice,
Vladislav Delay,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Beau Brummels,
The Gun Club,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Charles Mingus,
Gichy Dan,
Swans,
Dark Day,
Eden Ahbez,
Shuggie Otis,
Fad Gadget,
The Skatalites,
Pagans,
Porter Ricks,
Malaria!,
Technova,
The Sonics,
K-Klass,
The Fall,
Matthew Bourne,
Colin Newman,
Junior Murvin,
The Sound,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Tim Buckley,
Heaven 17,
Scientists, Scientists, Scientists, Scientists.
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.