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 Chad and from Portland.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1964 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Dark Day to the punk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Rakim. All the underground hits.
All Sunsets and Hearts tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Standells 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a New York Dolls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swans,
The Knickerbockers,
The Sonics,
Sparks,
Electric Prunes,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Sixth Finger,
Ken Boothe,
ABBA,
The Gladiators,
Soulsonic Force,
Essential Logic,
Main Source,
The Motions,
The Blues Magoos,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Eve St. Jones,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sex Pistols,
Yusef Lateef,
D'Angelo,
The Misunderstood,
X-102,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Kerrie Biddell,
Godley & Creme,
the Germs,
Frankie Knuckles,
Hoover,
The Fuzztones,
Erykah Badu,
The Martian,
The Young Rascals,
H. Thieme,
Excepter,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Fad Gadget,
Hardrive,
Joe Smooth,
Amon Düül II,
The Grass Roots,
Ronnie Foster,
The Monochrome Set,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sugar Minott,
Bobby Womack,
Blake Baxter,
Barclay James Harvest,
The United States of America,
the Soft Cell,
Robert Hood,
Josef K,
The Fall,
the Bar-Kays,
Supertramp,
Lou Christie,
Jacob Miller,
Hot Snakes,
The Toasters,
Eric Dolphy,
Pole,
Vladislav Delay,
Bang On A Can,
T. Rex, T. Rex, T. Rex, T. Rex.
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.