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 Russia and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Halifax 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 Robert Palmer 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 Fort Wilson Riot to the grunge 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 Quadrant. All the underground hits.
All Electric Light Orchestra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scratch Acid record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ituana record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wolf Eyes,
Lee Hazlewood,
Amazonics,
OOIOO,
Neu!,
Cameo,
The Blackbyrds,
The Slits,
Jimmy McGriff,
Ten City,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Saccharine Trust,
Barbara Tucker,
Cal Tjader,
The New Christs,
Fela Kuti,
Traffic Nightmare,
Graham Central Station,
Theoretical Girls,
Unwound,
Brick,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sun City Girls,
Tubeway Army,
Warren Ellis,
Swans,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Cheater Slicks,
L. Decosne,
Dawn Penn,
Bang On A Can,
Tommy Roe,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Con Funk Shun,
Fad Gadget,
Kerri Chandler,
Delta 5,
Japan,
Franke,
Scratch Acid,
The Real Kids,
Scrapy,
Cecil Taylor,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Flash Fearless,
Monolake,
Jesper Dahlback,
Second Layer,
Zapp,
Kool Moe Dee,
Mars,
Mo-Dettes,
Radiopuhelimet,
Bauhaus,
Pantaleimon,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Fluxion,
Wally Richardson,
The Black Dice, The Black Dice, The Black Dice, The Black Dice.
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.