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 Bangladesh and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pere Ubu to the grime 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 Cheater Slicks. All the underground hits.
All Ponytail tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Von Mondo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cramps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MDC,
Minutemen,
Mantronix,
John Foxx,
Wally Richardson,
Smog,
China Crisis,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Harpers Bizarre,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Camouflage,
Bobby Sherman,
Von Mondo,
Toni Rubio,
Rosa Yemen,
Wasted Youth,
L. Decosne,
Anthony Braxton,
The Sound,
Con Funk Shun,
OOIOO,
Bob Dylan,
Patti Smith,
Rakim,
James White and The Blacks,
Aswad,
The Doors,
The Slits,
Gabor Szabo,
Jerry's Kids,
Eric Dolphy,
Quadrant,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Vogues,
The Skatalites,
Amon Düül II,
10cc,
Rufus Thomas,
Cymande,
Lou Reed,
Khruangbin,
Spoonie Gee,
The Associates,
Vladislav Delay,
Pere Ubu,
Matthew Halsall,
the Fania All-Stars,
Drive Like Jehu,
Soul Sonic Force,
Fat Boys,
The Divine Comedy,
Aural Exciters,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
D'Angelo,
AZ,
Cybotron,
Barbara Tucker,
Half Japanese,
PIL,
Marmalade,
The Cure,
Kenny Larkin,
X-102,
Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding, Das Ding.
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.