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 Houston.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 theremin 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 Saccharine Trust to the grime 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 Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tropical Tobacco 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 spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Last Poets,
The Smiths,
OOIOO,
Joensuu 1685,
Stockholm Monsters,
Bang On A Can,
Half Japanese,
The Star Department,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Kerri Chandler,
Panda Bear,
Black Moon,
Scientists,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sonny Sharrock,
Gang Green,
Kool Moe Dee,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Gerry Rafferty,
MC5,
Mary Jane Girls,
Public Enemy,
Yellowson,
F. McDonald,
Blake Baxter,
Crime,
Minutemen,
Duran Duran,
Crash Course in Science,
Grandmaster Flash,
Ronnie Foster,
Aural Exciters,
The Fortunes,
Theoretical Girls,
Newcleus,
Sonic Youth,
Agent Orange,
The Litter,
Leonard Cohen,
X-101,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Barry Ungar,
Dawn Penn,
The Victims,
Pagans,
Zero Boys,
Depeche Mode,
Radiohead,
Anakelly,
Make Up,
Yusef Lateef,
Howard Jones,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Morten Harket,
the Slits,
Yaz,
Alton Ellis,
The Smoke,
Simply Red,
Deepchord,
Lou Christie, Lou Christie, Lou Christie, Lou Christie.
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.