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 Belarus and from Taipei.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Excepter to the rap kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Normal. All the underground hits.
All Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gil Scott Heron 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rufus Thomas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harpers Bizarre,
Flipper,
The Litter,
The New Christs,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Jandek,
Lightning Bolt,
Dead Boys,
Rotary Connection,
Eve St. Jones,
Suicide,
Ice-T,
John Coltrane,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Erasure,
Lungfish,
Dawn Penn,
Hoover,
Arcadia,
Outsiders,
The Dave Clark Five,
The United States of America,
Banda Bassotti,
Au Pairs,
Andrew Hill,
Clear Light,
Metal Thangz,
U.S. Maple,
Crime,
Nas,
Roxy Music,
Reagan Youth,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Bronski Beat,
Pantaleimon,
Khruangbin,
Maleditus Sound,
Albert Ayler,
Gang of Four,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Glambeats Corp.,
Gastr Del Sol,
Bobby Womack,
Schoolly D,
Iggy Pop,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Rites of Spring,
Joensuu 1685,
Nick Fraelich,
The Real Kids,
The Detroit Cobras,
Sun Ra,
Scott Walker,
FM Einheit,
Zero Boys,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Electric Prunes,
Tears for Fears,
Moebius,
The Gap Band,
Jeff Lynne,
The Beau Brummels,
Average White Band,
Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders, Pharoah Sanders.
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.