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 South Africa and from Edmonton.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 güiro 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 8 Eyed Spy to the crunk 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 The Buckinghams. All the underground hits.
All Pet Shop Boys tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bauhaus 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Circle Jerks,
Shoche,
Chris & Cosey,
These Immortal Souls,
Grey Daturas,
Q and Not U,
Sexual Harrassment,
Deadbeat,
Pharoah Sanders,
Ludus,
Camouflage,
Dorothy Ashby,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Ken Boothe,
The Slackers,
The Stooges,
the Soft Cell,
Minutemen,
Minor Threat,
Chrome,
The Saints,
In Retrospect,
Lalann,
Yellowson,
The Divine Comedy,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Negative Approach,
Tropical Tobacco,
Nick Fraelich,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
a-ha,
Liliput,
Peter & Gordon,
Rosa Yemen,
Yaz,
Stiv Bators,
The Selecter,
U.S. Maple,
Lungfish,
New Age Steppers,
UT,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Spandau Ballet,
cv313,
Pole,
Yusef Lateef,
EPMD,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Suicide,
Marine Girls,
T. Rex,
Los Fastidios,
Bronski Beat,
Gastr Del Sol,
Slick Rick,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
China Crisis,
ABBA,
Terry Callier,
The Knickerbockers,
Johnny Clarke,
Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre, Harpers Bizarre.
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.