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 Italy and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 oboe 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 Groovy Waters to the dance kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Roy Ayers. All the underground hits.
All Ralphi Rosario tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ken Boothe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 harpsichord and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Wells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Stetsasonic,
Mandrill,
Warsaw,
James White and The Blacks,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Roxette,
Fela Kuti,
Country Teasers,
Boogie Down Productions,
Kurtis Blow,
the Fania All-Stars,
Ralphi Rosario,
Minor Threat,
Nirvana,
Funkadelic,
Marcia Griffiths,
Bizarre Inc.,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Reagan Youth,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Walker Brothers,
Morten Harket,
Moby Grape,
Monks,
Cecil Taylor,
Blake Baxter,
Kevin Saunderson,
Magma,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Scan 7,
The Count Five,
Darondo,
Alphaville,
The Kinks,
Black Sheep,
The Electric Prunes,
the Swans,
The Residents,
Sun City Girls,
The Golliwogs,
The Techniques,
Section 25,
The Knickerbockers,
Gichy Dan,
Robert Wyatt,
Dawn Penn,
Alton Ellis,
X-101,
Black Pus,
R.M.O.,
Crime,
Quadrant,
Marc Almond,
Amazonics,
Lindisfarne,
Audionom,
Animal Collective,
The Pop Group,
The Victims,
Mad Mike,
Fatback Band, Fatback Band, Fatback Band, Fatback Band.
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.