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 El Salvador and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 David Bowie 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 Rekid to the rock kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Cramps. All the underground hits.
All Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minnie Riperton record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Simply Red record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Grauzone,
Black Bananas,
Nas,
Monolake,
Ice-T,
Surgeon,
The Mummies,
Donald Byrd,
EPMD,
Sun Ra,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Fluxion,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Robert Wyatt,
Stiv Bators,
Barrington Levy,
Mission of Burma,
The Fire Engines,
Tom Boy,
The Searchers,
Lou Reed,
Sister Nancy,
Icehouse,
The Fortunes,
The Happenings,
Traffic Nightmare,
Crime,
Accadde A,
Goldenarms,
The Young Rascals,
Blake Baxter,
Buzzcocks,
Jandek,
Swans,
The Red Krayola,
The Walker Brothers,
Tres Demented,
Fugazi,
Tropical Tobacco,
Half Japanese,
David Axelrod,
The Modern Lovers,
Brick,
The Gun Club,
Eric Copeland,
Ituana,
Nils Olav,
Jerry's Kids,
Pulsallama,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Residents,
The Golliwogs,
UT,
Mark Hollis,
Rotary Connection,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Shuggie Otis,
The Pretty Things,
Albert Ayler,
MC5,
H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme, H. Thieme.
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.