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 Venezuela and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 marimba 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 The Toasters to the dance kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Tom Boy. All the underground hits.
All Todd Terry tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gong 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 guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Brothers Johnson 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?
Gregory Isaacs,
Nirvana,
Johnny Osbourne,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
New Age Steppers,
The Remains,
Amon Düül,
Kerrie Biddell,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Knickerbockers,
Nils Olav,
Swans,
Tropical Tobacco,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Arab on Radar,
Scratch Acid,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sonic Youth,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Bronski Beat,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Jeru the Damaja,
ABBA,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Flash Fearless,
The Birthday Party,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bizarre Inc.,
Hasil Adkins,
Nick Fraelich,
Nation of Ulysses,
Josef K,
Echospace,
Avey Tare,
John Foxx,
Pet Shop Boys,
Todd Rundgren,
The Real Kids,
Wolf Eyes,
The Blackbyrds,
Nas,
Popol Vuh,
The Move,
Saccharine Trust,
Suburban Knight,
Joey Negro,
Sister Nancy,
Dorothy Ashby,
Thompson Twins,
MDC,
The Standells,
In Retrospect,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Dual Sessions,
Procol Harum,
Visage,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Names,
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.