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 Australia and from Hong Kong.
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 London and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the oboe 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 Robert Wyatt to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Joe Smooth. All the underground hits.
All The Angels of Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
Youth Brigade,
Joensuu 1685,
A Certain Ratio,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Thee Headcoats,
48th St. Collective,
Derrick Morgan,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Agitation Free,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
the Bar-Kays,
The Human League,
Excepter,
Pantytec,
Trumans Water,
Clear Light,
Jacob Miller,
The Last Poets,
Marmalade,
Kerrie Biddell,
Roger Hodgson,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
JFA,
The Toasters,
Urselle,
Television Personalities,
The Gladiators,
Minor Threat,
Amon Düül II,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Yazoo,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Bauhaus,
LL Cool J,
Tim Buckley,
Janne Schatter,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Subhumans,
Stereo Dub,
The Walker Brothers,
Sun City Girls,
Average White Band,
Sandy B,
Franke,
Sight & Sound,
Mars,
Gabor Szabo,
Jeff Lynne,
Nick Fraelich,
Essential Logic,
The Dead C,
Darondo,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Sarah Menescal,
The Motions,
Saccharine Trust,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Accadde A,
The Kinks,
Ituana, Ituana, Ituana, Ituana.
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.