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 Laos and from Jakarta.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
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 Intrusion to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Pole. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Litter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gabor Szabo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Stiv Bators,
The Happenings,
Section 25,
The Offenders,
This Heat,
the Sonics,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
the Germs,
MC5,
Brass Construction,
Henry Cow,
the Bar-Kays,
The Last Poets,
Sound Behaviour,
Kurtis Blow,
Adolescents,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Roxy Music,
Television Personalities,
Ken Boothe,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Evens,
Amon Düül II,
Rosa Yemen,
The Tremeloes,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Trojans,
Sun Ra,
Faust,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tommy Roe,
cv313,
Dave Gahan,
Althea and Donna,
Eve St. Jones,
Dennis Brown,
Iggy Pop,
Ultimate Spinach,
Nirvana,
Drexciya,
Sixth Finger,
Masters at Work,
Desert Stars,
Man Parrish,
Con Funk Shun,
Lungfish,
The Angels of Light,
Angry Samoans,
Davy DMX,
Thee Headcoats,
Yellowson,
Traffic Nightmare,
Aloha Tigers,
Sarah Menescal,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Dirtbombs,
Kas Product,
Fat Boys,
Robert Hood,
Peter and Kerry,
Qualms,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.