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 Israel and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 The Trojans to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Circle Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Robert Görl tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sister Nancy 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bad Manners,
the Slits,
The Associates,
Eden Ahbez,
Marshall Jefferson,
Tim Buckley,
Brass Construction,
One Last Wish,
Lakeside,
Matthew Halsall,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Subhumans,
Tres Demented,
Freddie Wadling,
Isaac Hayes,
The Last Poets,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Cybotron,
The Vogues,
Nirvana,
T. Rex,
The Electric Prunes,
kango's stein massive,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Bobby Hutcherson,
This Heat,
The Zeros,
Ludus,
Ice-T,
Ossler,
The Alarm Clocks,
Sonic Youth,
8 Eyed Spy,
PIL,
David Axelrod,
Joyce Sims,
Pierre Henry,
The Kinks,
Public Enemy,
The Fortunes,
Circle Jerks,
Pere Ubu,
Ronan,
Agitation Free,
Suicide,
Alton Ellis,
Flash Fearless,
Man Eating Sloth,
Reuben Wilson,
Cymande,
Boredoms,
The Trojans,
Adolescents,
June of 44,
Thompson Twins,
Das Ding,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Alison Limerick,
Porter Ricks,
Neu!,
The Walker Brothers,
Camberwell Now,
The Doors, The Doors, The Doors, The Doors.
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.