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 Brazil and from New York.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 spring reverb 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 X-102 to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Nation of Ulysses. All the underground hits.
All Crime tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Association 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scott Walker record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum 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 Swans,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Negative Approach,
Easy Going,
Marvin Gaye,
Black Bananas,
New York Dolls,
Second Layer,
Gastr Del Sol,
Tubeway Army,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The J.B.'s,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Siglo XX,
Sister Nancy,
Rites of Spring,
The Electric Prunes,
John Lydon,
MC5,
Organ,
Eve St. Jones,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Ponytail,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Nirvana,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Sonics,
Amon Düül II,
Soft Cell,
The Young Rascals,
Metal Thangz,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ten City,
The Fortunes,
The Grass Roots,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Nik Kershaw,
Country Teasers,
Scrapy,
Man Parrish,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Terrestrial Tones,
Andrew Hill,
Scan 7,
Al Stewart,
The Music Machine,
Throbbing Gristle,
DNA,
The Monks,
Sonic Youth,
Unrelated Segments,
Rekid,
Wolf Eyes,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Robert Hood,
Thee Headcoats,
Prince Buster,
Kerri Chandler,
Joensuu 1685,
Lyres, Lyres, Lyres, Lyres.
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.