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 Antigua and from Bologna.
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 1964 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Minny Pops to the techno 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 The Star Department. All the underground hits.
All Kas Product tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Bar-Kays record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Peanut Butter Conspiracy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sound Behaviour,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Byron Stingily,
Matthew Halsall,
Grey Daturas,
cv313,
Thee Headcoats,
Godley & Creme,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Funky Four + One,
48th St. Collective,
Stereo Dub,
Archie Shepp,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Magma,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Depeche Mode,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Gang Green,
Kayak,
Crash Course in Science,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Vladislav Delay,
Franke,
Nation of Ulysses,
T. Rex,
Dennis Brown,
The Busters,
Flash Fearless,
Maleditus Sound,
Mission of Burma,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Letta Mbulu,
Underground Resistance,
Camberwell Now,
New Order,
the Bar-Kays,
The Dead C,
Qualms,
David Axelrod,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Todd Terry,
Arab on Radar,
Anakelly,
Inner City,
the Association,
Soft Machine,
A Certain Ratio,
Unrelated Segments,
The Electric Prunes,
Warren Ellis,
Traffic Nightmare,
Sixth Finger,
Hasil Adkins,
Crooked Eye,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Stockholm Monsters,
MDC,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ronnie Foster,
Scrapy,
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow.
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.