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 Czech Republic and from Seoul.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 clarinet 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 Yellowson to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Cybotron. All the underground hits.
All Terry Callier tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eden Ahbez record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gregory Isaacs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Detroit Cobras,
Hoover,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Silicon Teens,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Piero Umiliani,
The Count Five,
Technova,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Stooges,
Lindisfarne,
Model 500,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Terrestrial Tones,
Bootsy Collins,
Black Moon,
Sonny Sharrock,
CMW,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Wake,
The Durutti Column,
Minor Threat,
Sun Ra,
Junior Murvin,
Subhumans,
The Black Dice,
Smog,
The Offenders,
The Pretty Things,
Hot Snakes,
Flash Fearless,
Newcleus,
Jeff Mills,
Excepter,
F. McDonald,
Erasure,
Patti Smith,
MC5,
Mad Mike,
Animal Collective,
Bad Manners,
Quadrant,
Monks,
Y Pants,
The Cure,
U.S. Maple,
The Five Americans,
LL Cool J,
Accadde A,
Sarah Menescal,
The Tremeloes,
Jacques Brel,
Nico,
Pussy Galore,
These Immortal Souls,
Rhythm & Sound,
John Coltrane,
Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe, Ken Boothe.
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.