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 Switzerland and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 Accra and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 sitar 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 David Bowie to the grunge 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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every James Chance & The Contortions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eli Mardock record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Altered Images,
Lalann,
The Last Poets,
The Gories,
Judy Mowatt,
Scott Walker,
La Düsseldorf,
Pantytec,
Negative Approach,
Delta 5,
The Mummies,
The Standells,
The Monks,
Carl Craig,
Bill Near,
cv313,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Lyres,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Rakim,
Skriet,
Janne Schatter,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Cecil Taylor,
Stockholm Monsters,
Byron Stingily,
Gerry Rafferty,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Smog,
FM Einheit,
Lou Reed,
The Shadows of Knight,
Robert Hood,
Albert Ayler,
Harry Pussy,
Lee Hazlewood,
Los Fastidios,
Severed Heads,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Zeros,
Anakelly,
Guru Guru,
One Last Wish,
The Martian,
Robert Wyatt,
The Victims,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Susan Cadogan,
Flamin' Groovies,
Hot Snakes,
The Alarm Clocks,
10cc,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Rotary Connection,
Morten Harket,
Magazine,
Eden Ahbez,
Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman.
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.