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 Ghana and from Copenhagen.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 organ 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 Warren Ellis to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Durutti Column. All the underground hits.
All Strawberry Alarm Clock tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric Dolphy 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Peter and Kerry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gichy Dan,
JFA,
The Moody Blues,
Bobby Byrd,
Oblivians,
David Axelrod,
Davy DMX,
Eurythmics,
Harpers Bizarre,
Traffic Nightmare,
CMW,
K-Klass,
John Holt,
Drive Like Jehu,
Unwound,
Marmalade,
Visage,
Deakin,
Duran Duran,
Bad Manners,
KRS-One,
Jacques Brel,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Toni Rubio,
Isaac Hayes,
The Knickerbockers,
Dead Boys,
Crispian St. Peters,
Con Funk Shun,
The Standells,
The Raincoats,
Buzzcocks,
Groovy Waters,
Khruangbin,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
June Days,
Marshall Jefferson,
Silicon Teens,
Pharoah Sanders,
Ronan,
Kerri Chandler,
Lee Hazlewood,
Zero Boys,
Throbbing Gristle,
Half Japanese,
The Cramps,
Swell Maps,
Girls At Our Best!,
Peter and Kerry,
Organ,
Alton Ellis,
Flash Fearless,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Make Up,
Bang On A Can,
Agent Orange,
Howard Jones,
Matthew Halsall,
The Associates,
Mars,
The Slits,
Robert Görl,
Be Bop Deluxe, Be Bop Deluxe, Be Bop Deluxe, Be Bop Deluxe.
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.