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 Palau and from Houston.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Oneida to the techno 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 Scientists. All the underground hits.
All Tom Boy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Model 500 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a These Immortal Souls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Agitation Free,
Eric Copeland,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Theoretical Girls,
Cecil Taylor,
John Lydon,
Franke,
La Düsseldorf,
Tomorrow,
The Music Machine,
Ronnie Foster,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Bill Wells,
The Angels of Light,
Japan,
the Human League,
Ossler,
Graham Central Station,
Youth Brigade,
Ronan,
Ludus,
Sun City Girls,
Khruangbin,
Pole,
Kenny Larkin,
Pantytec,
The Gladiators,
the Germs,
Blancmange,
The Monochrome Set,
The Cure,
The Cowsills,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
In Retrospect,
Cheater Slicks,
John Holt,
Underground Resistance,
The Moody Blues,
The Sonics,
The Durutti Column,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Swans,
The Fortunes,
One Last Wish,
Malaria!,
Duran Duran,
Terry Callier,
Danielle Patucci,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Detroit Cobras,
Soft Cell,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Deadbeat,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Tres Demented,
Glenn Branca,
The Star Department,
Fear,
Anakelly,
Porter Ricks,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Swell Maps,
The Pop Group, The Pop Group, The Pop Group, The Pop Group.
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.