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 Malawi and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1963 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Radio Birdman to the grime 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 Lakeside. All the underground hits.
All Crispian St. Peters tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Banda Bassotti record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fifty Foot Hose,
Von Mondo,
Andrew Hill,
Dead Boys,
The Fugs,
Metal Thangz,
The Techniques,
Dennis Brown,
Reagan Youth,
The Searchers,
The Dave Clark Five,
Fad Gadget,
The Misunderstood,
Minnie Riperton,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Spandau Ballet,
The Golliwogs,
Motorama,
Unwound,
Wings,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Doors,
Pharoah Sanders,
Cymande,
Gang of Four,
Camberwell Now,
Mad Mike,
X-102,
AZ,
Byron Stingily,
Kaleidoscope,
Audionom,
Charles Mingus,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Quando Quango,
Dorothy Ashby,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Motions,
Pussy Galore,
Barclay James Harvest,
Be Bop Deluxe,
the Association,
Blossom Toes,
Cheater Slicks,
Bobby Byrd,
Gil Scott Heron,
Marine Girls,
Robert Wyatt,
Cluster,
Glambeats Corp.,
Average White Band,
John Holt,
This Heat,
the Germs,
Q and Not U,
Liliput,
Davy DMX,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Archie Shepp,
Crispian St. Peters,
Bill Near,
K-Klass,
The Star Department, The Star Department, The Star Department, The Star Department.
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.