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 Fiji and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Drive Like Jehu to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Walker Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Laurel Aitken tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Davy DMX record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lalann record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Grandmaster Flash,
Flamin' Groovies,
D'Angelo,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Sonics,
The Moleskins,
The Seeds,
Rakim,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Standells,
Bang On A Can,
World's Most,
Derrick May,
Al Stewart,
The Trojans,
Desert Stars,
Rites of Spring,
Sun City Girls,
Saccharine Trust,
Lucky Dragons,
Dual Sessions,
One Last Wish,
Brass Construction,
Siglo XX,
Lakeside,
Girls At Our Best!,
Bad Manners,
David McCallum,
Black Flag,
The Fall,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
MDC,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Delta 5,
EPMD,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Erasure,
Bush Tetras,
Joyce Sims,
Tres Demented,
Little Man,
Glenn Branca,
Moby Grape,
The Toasters,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Fortunes,
The Count Five,
Cabaret Voltaire,
H. Thieme,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
X-Ray Spex,
Lou Christie,
8 Eyed Spy,
Popol Vuh,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Nation of Ulysses,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.