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 Rwanda and from Milan.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Ludus to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quando Quango 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Association record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Index,
Lucky Dragons,
Deepchord,
Tommy Roe,
The Black Dice,
Donny Hathaway,
Simply Red,
Bootsy Collins,
Alison Limerick,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Alton Ellis,
JFA,
The Residents,
Albert Ayler,
Buzzcocks,
The Victims,
Eve St. Jones,
Scrapy,
Gregory Isaacs,
New Age Steppers,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Angels of Light,
Nik Kershaw,
The Last Poets,
Quadrant,
The Seeds,
Piero Umiliani,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Aloha Tigers,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
DJ Style,
the Normal,
Terry Callier,
Lower 48,
Kerri Chandler,
Jawbox,
Eric Dolphy,
Skriet,
Amon Düül II,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Mission of Burma,
Brand Nubian,
The Velvet Underground,
The Searchers,
AZ,
Stetsasonic,
Rakim,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Hot Snakes,
The Move,
Nation of Ulysses,
MC5,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Josef K,
Traffic Nightmare,
Ponytail,
Echospace,
Rapeman,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.