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 Lebanon and from Delhi.
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 Beijing and Winnipeg.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Yusef Lateef to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Accadde A. All the underground hits.
All 8 Eyed Spy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bootsy's Rubber Band 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 an arpeggiator and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Tomorrow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Human League,
Big Daddy Kane,
Ponytail,
Robert Görl,
Crime,
Henry Cow,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Kerrie Biddell,
Sällskapet,
Lee Hazlewood,
La Düsseldorf,
Bauhaus,
The Moleskins,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Mantronix,
Kerri Chandler,
Dead Boys,
Gang Starr,
New Age Steppers,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Eli Mardock,
It's A Beautiful Day,
T.S.O.L.,
The Slackers,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Rosa Yemen,
Excepter,
Pulsallama,
The Last Poets,
The Neon Judgement,
Minor Threat,
Janne Schatter,
Avey Tare,
Banda Bassotti,
Nas,
U.S. Maple,
Icehouse,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Rotary Connection,
F. McDonald,
Shoche,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Erasure,
The Doors,
Massinfluence,
The American Breed,
The Black Dice,
Q and Not U,
Lindisfarne,
Marine Girls,
Pole,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Adolescents,
Essential Logic,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Skatalites,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Spoonie Gee,
Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez, Eden Ahbez.
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.