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 Australia and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 Holger Czukay 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 The United States of America 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 Swell Maps. All the underground hits.
All June Days tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joensuu 1685,
Gil Scott Heron,
the Slits,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Godley & Creme,
New Order,
Slick Rick,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Gladiators,
Unrelated Segments,
The Offenders,
The Dave Clark Five,
Dorothy Ashby,
In Retrospect,
The Grass Roots,
Monks,
Banda Bassotti,
The Vogues,
Lightning Bolt,
David McCallum,
Interpol,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Groovy Waters,
Kas Product,
Quadrant,
the Soft Cell,
Roy Ayers,
The Cowsills,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Cymande,
Heaven 17,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Kerri Chandler,
John Coltrane,
Animal Collective,
Ponytail,
Malaria!,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Moody Blues,
The Blackbyrds,
The Stooges,
Ronan,
The American Breed,
Subhumans,
The Mojo Men,
Byron Stingily,
Funkadelic,
Delta 5,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Sparks,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Althea and Donna,
The Slits,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Soft Cell,
The Barracudas,
Eve St. Jones,
Bobby Byrd,
Ossler,
Nils Olav,
Bluetip, Bluetip, Bluetip, Bluetip.
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.