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 Vietnam and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Zeros to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Schoolly D. All the underground hits.
All Reuben Wilson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mo-Dettes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Cale record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Age Steppers,
Pet Shop Boys,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Reuben Wilson,
Lyres,
Scan 7,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
David Bowie,
The Stooges,
Morten Harket,
The Gun Club,
Television Personalities,
Kayak,
Pole,
the Sonics,
Robert Görl,
Brothers Johnson,
The Young Rascals,
The Count Five,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Names,
Piero Umiliani,
Slave,
The Pretty Things,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Barbara Tucker,
Funkadelic,
Slick Rick,
Neu!,
Los Fastidios,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Gang Starr,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Minny Pops,
The Angels of Light,
Main Source,
Adolescents,
Matthew Bourne,
Cecil Taylor,
Roxy Music,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Subhumans,
Infiniti,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Gladiators,
Camouflage,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Franke,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Minutemen,
The Blues Magoos,
Sonny Sharrock,
This Heat,
FM Einheit,
Davy DMX,
Reagan Youth,
Mandrill,
The Evens,
Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence.
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.