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 Mongolia and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 Houston and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 linndrum 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 Liaisons Dangereuses to the punk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Barrington Levy. All the underground hits.
All Youth Brigade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Hardrive record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barclay James Harvest,
Minny Pops,
Isaac Hayes,
Chris Corsano,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Don Cherry,
Shoche,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Marvin Gaye,
The Cowsills,
Infiniti,
Ossler,
AZ,
Lower 48,
Joensuu 1685,
Fat Boys,
Depeche Mode,
Marine Girls,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Model 500,
the Sonics,
X-101,
Surgeon,
Black Moon,
The Mojo Men,
UT,
Magazine,
Dark Day,
Jimmy McGriff,
Ituana,
Monks,
Ronan,
Blake Baxter,
ABBA,
The Young Rascals,
Niagra,
The Electric Prunes,
Scion,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Matthew Halsall,
Q65,
Andrew Hill,
The Invisible,
Icehouse,
Soft Cell,
Jeff Mills,
Banda Bassotti,
Mark Hollis,
Make Up,
Gil Scott Heron,
Terry Callier,
Nation of Ulysses,
the Swans,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Eric Copeland,
Glenn Branca,
Stiv Bators,
Lalann,
Tomorrow,
The Divine Comedy,
Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters.
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.