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 Georgia and from Columbus.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 arpeggiator 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 Bootsy's Rubber Band to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Thompson Twins. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brass Construction record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 linndrum and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dave Gahan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Glenn Branca,
Q and Not U,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Janne Schatter,
The Last Poets,
Fad Gadget,
Shoche,
Marmalade,
Buzzcocks,
The Raincoats,
The Litter,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bootsy Collins,
Hashim,
Tropical Tobacco,
EPMD,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The United States of America,
Barbara Tucker,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sarah Menescal,
Procol Harum,
Moby Grape,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Jawbox,
Gerry Rafferty,
Robert Görl,
Black Flag,
Lightning Bolt,
48th St. Collective,
the Germs,
The Dead C,
Nation of Ulysses,
Liliput,
Black Sheep,
Angry Samoans,
Boogie Down Productions,
Suburban Knight,
Dennis Brown,
Derrick May,
Robert Hood,
Dorothy Ashby,
Faraquet,
Yusef Lateef,
Robert Wyatt,
Tomorrow,
Byron Stingily,
Cybotron,
Brothers Johnson,
The Velvet Underground,
Connie Case,
Jimmy McGriff,
Mary Jane Girls,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Bobbi Humphrey,
London Community Gospel Choir,
OOIOO,
8 Eyed Spy,
Avey Tare,
The Misunderstood,
Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy, Livin' Joy.
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.