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 Moldova and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 David Bowie 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 Unwound 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 Public Image Ltd.. All the underground hits.
All The Pretty Things tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Techniques 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Idris Muhammad,
Suburban Knight,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gong,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Theoretical Girls,
Banda Bassotti,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
ABC,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Fugs,
Electric Prunes,
Alice Coltrane,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Scion,
Andrew Hill,
Eve St. Jones,
Royal Trux,
48th St. Collective,
The Young Rascals,
Marshall Jefferson,
Audionom,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Jandek,
DNA,
Peter & Gordon,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Unrelated Segments,
Joe Finger,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Zeros,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ornette Coleman,
Funkadelic,
Blake Baxter,
Crooked Eye,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Techniques,
Crispy Ambulance,
World's Most,
Soulsonic Force,
James White and The Blacks,
Dennis Brown,
Jimmy McGriff,
Pere Ubu,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Electric Prunes,
Angry Samoans,
Dorothy Ashby,
R.M.O.,
Traffic Nightmare,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Young Marble Giants,
Charles Mingus,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Sight & Sound,
Judy Mowatt,
Kaleidoscope,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.