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 Bangladesh and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 harpsichord 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 Rufus Thomas to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Aloha Tigers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a CMW record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Althea and Donna,
Boz Scaggs,
The Flesh Eaters,
Delta 5,
Urselle,
Steve Hackett,
Scrapy,
Donald Byrd,
10cc,
Surgeon,
The Stooges,
Peter & Gordon,
Eddi Front,
Wally Richardson,
Pylon,
Soulsonic Force,
Porter Ricks,
Jeru the Damaja,
Theoretical Girls,
Liliput,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Parry Music,
Deepchord,
Excepter,
Eric B and Rakim,
Barry Ungar,
Rites of Spring,
The Beau Brummels,
The Shadows of Knight,
Slave,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Rod Modell,
The Seeds,
48th St. Collective,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
L. Decosne,
The Slits,
K-Klass,
Pierre Henry,
Metal Thangz,
Swell Maps,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Chris & Cosey,
The Durutti Column,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Radiopuhelimet,
Shuggie Otis,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Marc Almond,
Laurel Aitken,
Wasted Youth,
Byron Stingily,
Dawn Penn,
Vladislav Delay,
Lee Hazlewood,
John Coltrane,
Absolute Body Control,
John Cale,
Blossom Toes,
The Gories, The Gories, The Gories, The Gories.
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.