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 Ghana and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Swans to the funk 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 Average White Band. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ronan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Erasure,
MC5,
Oblivians,
Don Cherry,
The Young Rascals,
Spandau Ballet,
Pylon,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Doobie Brothers,
T.S.O.L.,
Stereo Dub,
Wasted Youth,
Cameo,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Lucky Dragons,
PIL,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Agent Orange,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Toasters,
Guru Guru,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Dennis Brown,
Arthur Verocai,
The Dirtbombs,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Bob Dylan,
Throbbing Gristle,
Moebius,
The Happenings,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Suicide,
Quadrant,
Jesper Dahlback,
This Heat,
The Moleskins,
Rakim,
the Soft Cell,
X-102,
Connie Case,
Electric Prunes,
The Monks,
Derrick Morgan,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Eric Copeland,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Sight & Sound,
Talk Talk,
Shuggie Otis,
the Fania All-Stars,
Black Sheep,
Pantaleimon,
Swans,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Laurel Aitken,
Theoretical Girls,
Fear,
Das Ding,
Brand Nubian,
FM Einheit,
Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen.
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.