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 Chad and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 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 Chris Corsano to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Bob Dylan. All the underground hits.
All X-Ray Spex tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Names record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Arab on Radar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The New Christs,
Barry Ungar,
Lindisfarne,
The Doors,
Davy DMX,
Donald Byrd,
The Mojo Men,
Metal Thangz,
The Mummies,
Godley & Creme,
Boredoms,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Music Machine,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Pole,
Patti Smith,
Reagan Youth,
Moby Grape,
Deakin,
Television Personalities,
Q65,
Sound Behaviour,
Isaac Hayes,
Schoolly D,
Kerri Chandler,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
World's Most,
The Angels of Light,
DJ Sneak,
Alice Coltrane,
Agent Orange,
Bronski Beat,
Ten City,
AZ,
X-Ray Spex,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Slave,
Bluetip,
Quadrant,
Johnny Osbourne,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Das Ding,
Delon & Dalcan,
Half Japanese,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Index,
Brick,
Easy Going,
Donny Hathaway,
Nils Olav,
Sun City Girls,
The Electric Prunes,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Leaves,
Eric Dolphy,
the Human League,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lower 48,
The Raincoats,
PIL, PIL, PIL, PIL.
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.