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 Vietnam and from Calgary.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Mumbai.
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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Deadbeat to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. All the underground hits.
All Todd Rundgren tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stereo Dub 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
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 Fall record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lakeside,
Half Japanese,
Audionom,
Cecil Taylor,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Vainqueur,
Accadde A,
The Standells,
Brand Nubian,
Sun City Girls,
The Vogues,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Los Fastidios,
Pole,
Stetsasonic,
Grey Daturas,
Average White Band,
Neu!,
Faust,
Wire,
The Grass Roots,
Derrick May,
Echospace,
Quadrant,
Patti Smith,
Moebius,
Public Image Ltd.,
Gil Scott Heron,
Tropical Tobacco,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Lee Hazlewood,
Ponytail,
Surgeon,
David McCallum,
Jeru the Damaja,
KRS-One,
Jimmy McGriff,
Alison Limerick,
Marvin Gaye,
Malaria!,
Gang Gang Dance,
Marcia Griffiths,
PIL,
Rakim,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Victims,
Skaos,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Fuzztones,
The Barracudas,
The Moleskins,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Sarah Menescal,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Sound,
Danielle Patucci,
David Bowie,
DJ Style,
Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis, Mark Hollis.
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.