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 China and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 mellotron 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 Swans to the rock 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 Alice Coltrane. All the underground hits.
All Swell Maps tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Parry Music 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a kango's stein massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barrington Levy,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Beau Brummels,
Howard Jones,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Gang Starr,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Swell Maps,
The Index,
Connie Case,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Marcia Griffiths,
Jacques Brel,
Piero Umiliani,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Black Bananas,
Altered Images,
Organ,
The Detroit Cobras,
New Age Steppers,
Q and Not U,
Lyres,
Derrick May,
Brand Nubian,
Lungfish,
The J.B.'s,
H. Thieme,
Technova,
Goldenarms,
Pantaleimon,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Walker Brothers,
Public Enemy,
Buzzcocks,
Metal Thangz,
Masters at Work,
Black Pus,
Japan,
Gang Green,
Stereo Dub,
Sonny Sharrock,
Toni Rubio,
The Litter,
Royal Trux,
Depeche Mode,
Pole,
Mo-Dettes,
Alphaville,
The Fire Engines,
The Wake,
John Holt,
PIL,
Electric Prunes,
The Monks,
Robert Görl,
Robert Wyatt,
Country Teasers, Country Teasers, Country Teasers, Country Teasers.
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.