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 Argentina and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Halifax.
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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 David Axelrod to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Stooges. All the underground hits.
All Minnie Riperton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maurizio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Yusef Lateef,
Thee Headcoats,
Cameo,
MC5,
Scratch Acid,
Nils Olav,
Ohio Players,
Mars,
The Smiths,
The Music Machine,
Average White Band,
Fela Kuti,
Gabor Szabo,
Faraquet,
Max Romeo,
The Durutti Column,
The Residents,
The Shadows of Knight,
Jeff Mills,
The Trojans,
Nation of Ulysses,
David Bowie,
Young Marble Giants,
Davy DMX,
LL Cool J,
The Beau Brummels,
The Cure,
The Grass Roots,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Mission of Burma,
Crash Course in Science,
PIL,
Nirvana,
L. Decosne,
Sonic Youth,
Make Up,
Malaria!,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Cymande,
Faust,
Sam Rivers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Electric Light Orchestra,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Little Man,
Wire,
Rhythm & Sound,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Q and Not U,
Barbara Tucker,
The Seeds,
Roxette,
Bobby Womack,
Tim Buckley,
Lindisfarne,
Urselle,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Joy Division,
Organ, Organ, Organ, Organ.
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.