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 Tanzania and from Beijing.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the sitar 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 The Fire Engines 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 Ohio Players. All the underground hits.
All Half Japanese tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rites of Spring record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Arthur Verocai,
Cheater Slicks,
Main Source,
Mr. Review,
The Mummies,
In Retrospect,
The Motions,
Eurythmics,
Anthony Braxton,
Slick Rick,
Brand Nubian,
Masters at Work,
Banda Bassotti,
Sun City Girls,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Gil Scott Heron,
Freddie Wadling,
Jesper Dahlback,
Delon & Dalcan,
Crime,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Mission of Burma,
The Fire Engines,
Flamin' Groovies,
Ossler,
Oblivians,
Adolescents,
Malaria!,
The Raincoats,
Curtis Mayfield,
Duran Duran,
Fluxion,
Metal Thangz,
Gang of Four,
Camouflage,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Neon Judgement,
Howard Jones,
Tim Buckley,
Johnny Clarke,
Boogie Down Productions,
Grandmaster Flash,
Man Parrish,
Iggy Pop,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Cybotron,
Patti Smith,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Walker Brothers,
The Evens,
Nas,
the Association,
PIL,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Barrington Levy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Man Eating Sloth,
Charles Mingus,
Nation of Ulysses,
Easy Going,
Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne, Johnny Osbourne.
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.