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 Korea North and from Manchester.
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 1963 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the güiro 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 Bobby Hutcherson to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Eric Dolphy. All the underground hits.
All Thompson Twins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Harmonia record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 808 and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oblivians record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eli Mardock,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Associates,
The Star Department,
Interpol,
Morten Harket,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Idris Muhammad,
Pagans,
Soul Sonic Force,
Gregory Isaacs,
This Heat,
Alton Ellis,
The Saints,
Nas,
Ken Boothe,
The Martian,
Peter and Kerry,
The Mummies,
The Leaves,
Japan,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Wake,
The Young Rascals,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Electric Prunes,
Graham Central Station,
Albert Ayler,
The Names,
The Gun Club,
Eurythmics,
Lindisfarne,
Marc Almond,
The Fugs,
Zero Boys,
Flash Fearless,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Danielle Patucci,
Cluster,
Black Bananas,
Joy Division,
ABBA,
Jawbox,
Rod Modell,
Curtis Mayfield,
The New Christs,
Desert Stars,
The Grass Roots,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pierre Henry,
Q and Not U,
June Days,
Tubeway Army,
Sun Ra,
Radiohead,
Crooked Eye,
Thee Headcoats,
Warsaw,
The Doors,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!, Malaria!.
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.