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 Malawi and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 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 Bill Near to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 The Beau Brummels. All the underground hits.
All Anthony Braxton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Toni Rubio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 an oboe and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a De La Soul & Jungle Brothers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jerry's Kids,
the Germs,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Gichy Dan,
Connie Case,
Quantec,
Smog,
Schoolly D,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Sound,
Television,
Moby Grape,
Hot Snakes,
Sex Pistols,
John Lydon,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Minnie Riperton,
The Saints,
T. Rex,
The Birthday Party,
Von Mondo,
the Soft Cell,
Bootsy Collins,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Bronski Beat,
Lebanon Hanover,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Jacques Brel,
Nils Olav,
Q and Not U,
Colin Newman,
James White and The Blacks,
Roxy Music,
Icehouse,
Nation of Ulysses,
Dave Gahan,
The J.B.'s,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Jacob Miller,
the Sonics,
The Moleskins,
K-Klass,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
the Slits,
UT,
China Crisis,
Excepter,
Black Bananas,
Drexciya,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Surgeon,
New Order,
Glambeats Corp.,
Gang Green,
The Slackers,
The Techniques,
World's Most,
Brand Nubian,
The Velvet Underground,
Derrick Morgan,
The Slits, The Slits, The Slits, The Slits.
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.