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 Tuvalu and from Stockholm.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Malaria! to the rock kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Techniques. All the underground hits.
All Marmalade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Louis and Bebe Barron 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warsaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Neon Judgement,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Gil Scott Heron,
Crime,
Main Source,
The Trojans,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Donald Byrd,
Alison Limerick,
MC5,
Gong,
The Evens,
Sparks,
L. Decosne,
The Move,
EPMD,
Radiohead,
Magazine,
Scratch Acid,
Q65,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Steve Hackett,
Bush Tetras,
Faraquet,
the Bar-Kays,
Eric Copeland,
Accadde A,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Busters,
Man Eating Sloth,
Desert Stars,
Liliput,
Moebius,
Popol Vuh,
Robert Görl,
Funkadelic,
The Real Kids,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Franke,
Derrick Morgan,
Graham Central Station,
The Count Five,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Ultra Naté,
The Cure,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Masters at Work,
Barry Ungar,
Altered Images,
Das Ding,
B.T. Express,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bang On A Can,
Scott Walker,
The Slackers,
Guru Guru,
Bauhaus,
Average White Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
Angry Samoans,
Livin' Joy,
Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis.
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.