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 Taiwan and from Accra.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Sixth Finger to the crunk 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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All Shuggie Otis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pere Ubu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Crime record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Don Cherry,
John Foxx,
Nick Fraelich,
Mr. Review,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Invisible,
Donald Byrd,
Little Man,
Average White Band,
Prince Buster,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Sonics,
Groovy Waters,
Kerri Chandler,
Suicide,
Pole,
The Flesh Eaters,
Fatback Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Marine Girls,
Magma,
The Cramps,
Vladislav Delay,
Nils Olav,
the Normal,
Aloha Tigers,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Arcadia,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Icehouse,
Minny Pops,
Stockholm Monsters,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Fire Engines,
Terry Callier,
Kool Moe Dee,
Sam Rivers,
The J.B.'s,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Avey Tare,
Rapeman,
Soul II Soul,
Carl Craig,
Johnny Osbourne,
Rod Modell,
Dave Gahan,
Cluster,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Wally Richardson,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
the Association,
Bang On A Can,
Inner City,
Main Source,
Reuben Wilson,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
UT,
Scion,
Rakim,
The Gladiators,
The Buckinghams,
Nirvana,
Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army, Tubeway Army.
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.