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 Spain and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the theremin 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 U.S. Maple to the disco 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 Newcleus. All the underground hits.
All Crash Course in Science tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobby Hutcherson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sällskapet,
Marvin Gaye,
Ultimate Spinach,
Vainqueur,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Move,
Ronan,
Sister Nancy,
Rod Modell,
Barry Ungar,
Isaac Hayes,
The Searchers,
Minor Threat,
Yellowson,
Roy Ayers,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Television,
Tom Boy,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Accadde A,
The Slits,
Donny Hathaway,
Joe Smooth,
Graham Central Station,
Grey Daturas,
Can,
Stiv Bators,
The Mummies,
The Gun Club,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Shuggie Otis,
Echospace,
Colin Newman,
Scan 7,
Skriet,
Pierre Henry,
David McCallum,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gichy Dan,
Agitation Free,
Mission of Burma,
Scratch Acid,
In Retrospect,
the Normal,
Amon Düül,
Nas,
Second Layer,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Moleskins,
Brick,
OOIOO,
Von Mondo,
Reagan Youth,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
X-101,
Kurtis Blow,
Quadrant,
The Invisible,
Stetsasonic,
The Gap Band,
Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen, Minutemen.
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.