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 Somalia and from Jakarta.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 David Axelrod to the techno 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 Slick Rick. All the underground hits.
All Camberwell Now tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tropical Tobacco 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Los Fastidios,
The Dead C,
Public Image Ltd.,
Jacob Miller,
Massinfluence,
the Slits,
The Five Americans,
Bauhaus,
Lou Reed,
Lower 48,
Gang Green,
A Certain Ratio,
Juan Atkins,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Black Sheep,
Eddi Front,
Jawbox,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Erasure,
Lindisfarne,
Davy DMX,
The Monks,
The Grass Roots,
Morten Harket,
Sandy B,
The Walker Brothers,
OOIOO,
MDC,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Radiohead,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Angry Samoans,
Junior Murvin,
CMW,
Heaven 17,
Nils Olav,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Index,
Y Pants,
Lou Christie,
Franke,
The Doors,
KRS-One,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Marcia Griffiths,
Amazonics,
Thompson Twins,
Lakeside,
Dead Boys,
Anthony Braxton,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Gap Band,
Dennis Brown,
Connie Case,
Moby Grape,
The Toasters,
Arcadia,
The Knickerbockers,
H. Thieme,
Sister Nancy,
Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca, Glenn Branca.
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.