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 Portugal and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Robert Palmer 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 Grey Daturas to the disco 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 Pantaleimon. All the underground hits.
All Bluetip tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lucky Dragons record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 a spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bill Near record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Big Daddy Kane,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Eddi Front,
Matthew Bourne,
Lou Christie,
Ohio Players,
Swans,
The Count Five,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Joy Division,
The Seeds,
Whodini,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Gerry Rafferty,
Amazonics,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Colin Newman,
The Golliwogs,
Minor Threat,
Shuggie Otis,
LL Cool J,
F. McDonald,
Grandmaster Flash,
Tom Boy,
The Modern Lovers,
Quando Quango,
Fat Boys,
The Black Dice,
Crispy Ambulance,
Byron Stingily,
Barclay James Harvest,
Ludus,
Tommy Roe,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Thompson Twins,
Alton Ellis,
Zero Boys,
Nation of Ulysses,
Todd Rundgren,
Underground Resistance,
The Litter,
Ultimate Spinach,
Skriet,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Barrington Levy,
Pierre Henry,
Yazoo,
The Five Americans,
Barbara Tucker,
Rotary Connection,
CMW,
The Techniques,
Dorothy Ashby,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Suicide,
Fear,
Donny Hathaway,
Barry Ungar,
The Electric Prunes,
the Germs,
June Days,
Q and Not U,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.