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 Switzerland and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 theremin 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 Joy Division to the techno 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk. All the underground hits.
All Connie Case tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arthur Verocai record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 guitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Be Bop Deluxe,
Lalann,
The Techniques,
JFA,
The Cowsills,
The Five Americans,
Peter & Gordon,
Eddi Front,
Josef K,
Con Funk Shun,
Mars,
Laurel Aitken,
The Last Poets,
Johnny Osbourne,
John Cale,
10cc,
Juan Atkins,
New York Dolls,
The Dead C,
the Sonics,
Urselle,
Ronnie Foster,
The Selecter,
June of 44,
The Golliwogs,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Crime,
Symarip,
Grauzone,
Joey Negro,
Altered Images,
Severed Heads,
The Fugs,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Names,
Cybotron,
Harmonia,
Marcia Griffiths,
Depeche Mode,
Desert Stars,
Roxette,
Pole,
Dawn Penn,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Star Department,
The Victims,
Sparks,
Rotary Connection,
Cecil Taylor,
8 Eyed Spy,
Amon Düül,
X-Ray Spex,
Clear Light,
Jeru the Damaja,
Groovy Waters,
Icehouse,
Dorothy Ashby,
Unrelated Segments,
Yellowson,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Deadbeat,
Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop, Iggy Pop.
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.