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 Colombia and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Gian Franco Pienzio to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Slackers. All the underground hits.
All Lungfish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every UT 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James Chance & The Contortions record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Index,
Sugar Minott,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Sun City Girls,
Animal Collective,
Jeff Mills,
The Angels of Light,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Sonics,
The Alarm Clocks,
Nils Olav,
Stereo Dub,
Fear,
Television Personalities,
Tomorrow,
Delon & Dalcan,
Pharoah Sanders,
DNA,
Roger Hodgson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
10cc,
Colin Newman,
Freddie Wadling,
The Grass Roots,
Crispian St. Peters,
Cecil Taylor,
Hashim,
Don Cherry,
The Misunderstood,
DJ Style,
Eve St. Jones,
Jesper Dahlback,
Tom Boy,
Ituana,
Eden Ahbez,
Kas Product,
Panda Bear,
Tim Buckley,
The Residents,
Tres Demented,
Roxette,
the Soft Cell,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Man Parrish,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Vainqueur,
Rapeman,
Dawn Penn,
Echospace,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Big Daddy Kane,
Guru Guru,
Young Marble Giants,
Unwound,
T.S.O.L.,
Kerrie Biddell,
Isaac Hayes,
Robert Görl,
Blossom Toes,
Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza, Eyeless In Gaza.
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.