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 Guinea-Bissau and from Beijing.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Subhumans to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Gun Club. All the underground hits.
All Barrington Levy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Piero Umiliani record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 a güiro and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Raincoats record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sunsets and Hearts,
Saccharine Trust,
Kas Product,
Radio Birdman,
Porter Ricks,
Marshall Jefferson,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Aaron Thompson,
New York Dolls,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Searchers,
Jeff Mills,
Man Parrish,
Stetsasonic,
Piero Umiliani,
Aural Exciters,
Sonny Sharrock,
Sun Ra,
World's Most,
Roxy Music,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Grass Roots,
Throbbing Gristle,
JFA,
Black Flag,
Tropical Tobacco,
Stiv Bators,
Hot Snakes,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lungfish,
Dual Sessions,
Joy Division,
Rufus Thomas,
Susan Cadogan,
It's A Beautiful Day,
June of 44,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Angry Samoans,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Agent Orange,
Boz Scaggs,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Alice Coltrane,
Peter and Kerry,
Deadbeat,
Lebanon Hanover,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Radiohead,
The Gap Band,
Pylon,
Black Bananas,
Wally Richardson,
Ponytail,
The Count Five,
Erasure,
Y Pants,
The Invisible,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Nico,
Flipper,
Eve St. Jones,
Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet.
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.