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 Andorra and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 Copenhagen and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 sitar 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 Rapeman to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Crime 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sällskapet,
Wolf Eyes,
Ludus,
Brass Construction,
Charles Mingus,
Tomorrow,
Alphaville,
The Doors,
Derrick Morgan,
Fela Kuti,
The Fire Engines,
Patti Smith,
Jacob Miller,
the Soft Cell,
Marshall Jefferson,
Eddi Front,
Laurel Aitken,
CMW,
The Star Department,
Surgeon,
New York Dolls,
Cecil Taylor,
The Monks,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Evens,
Nick Fraelich,
Godley & Creme,
Terry Callier,
The Black Dice,
Freddie Wadling,
Sparks,
Leonard Cohen,
The Pop Group,
Peter & Gordon,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Clear Light,
Andrew Hill,
Average White Band,
Colin Newman,
Interpol,
T. Rex,
The Cure,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Victims,
Juan Atkins,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Letta Mbulu,
Severed Heads,
Crash Course in Science,
Susan Cadogan,
The Litter,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Bad Manners,
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash.
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.