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 Liberia and from Bologna.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Zero Boys to the punk 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 James Chance & The Contortions. All the underground hits.
All Youth Brigade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Cure 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lower 48,
Q65,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Delon & Dalcan,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
In Retrospect,
Junior Murvin,
Sparks,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Jawbox,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The J.B.'s,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Cecil Taylor,
The Pretty Things,
48th St. Collective,
Motorama,
Black Pus,
Flipper,
Brothers Johnson,
the Soft Cell,
Blossom Toes,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Anthony Braxton,
The Blues Magoos,
Kerri Chandler,
Faust,
Roger Hodgson,
Moebius,
Ultimate Spinach,
Kayak,
The Mummies,
Thompson Twins,
Skriet,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Monolake,
Ten City,
Donald Byrd,
Liliput,
It's A Beautiful Day,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Unwound,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
DNA,
Dawn Penn,
Groovy Waters,
Ralphi Rosario,
Max Romeo,
the Bar-Kays,
The Count Five,
Amon Düül II,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Gang Starr,
Crime,
Sound Behaviour,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Jerry's Kids,
A Certain Ratio,
Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse.
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.