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 San Marino and from Copenhagen.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 Tom Verlaine 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 Sonny Sharrock to the grime 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 Wolf Eyes. All the underground hits.
All Severed Heads tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jacques Brel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Cramps record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Albert Ayler,
ABC,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Jacob Miller,
Peter and Kerry,
the Swans,
Clear Light,
The Doors,
Rites of Spring,
Scott Walker,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sällskapet,
Archie Shepp,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Gichy Dan,
The Detroit Cobras,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
LL Cool J,
Jeff Mills,
Barbara Tucker,
Banda Bassotti,
Crispy Ambulance,
Barclay James Harvest,
Brass Construction,
Tubeway Army,
Tropical Tobacco,
Faust,
Kool Moe Dee,
The New Christs,
Stockholm Monsters,
Freddie Wadling,
Black Bananas,
The Barracudas,
Ultra Naté,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Vainqueur,
Livin' Joy,
Eden Ahbez,
Accadde A,
Alison Limerick,
Ossler,
Rhythm & Sound,
Main Source,
Robert Hood,
Lightning Bolt,
Fat Boys,
The Golliwogs,
Donald Byrd,
Ludus,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Kurtis Blow,
John Cale,
Loose Ends,
Tommy Roe,
Circle Jerks,
Surgeon,
Barrington Levy,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.