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 Fiji and from Houston.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Laurel Aitken to the dance 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 Audionom. All the underground hits.
All Ohio Players tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Slits 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
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 Depeche Mode record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David McCallum,
The Sonics,
Peter & Gordon,
Tommy Roe,
Josef K,
Eric Copeland,
The Last Poets,
Negative Approach,
Amon Düül,
Byron Stingily,
Pussy Galore,
Pierre Henry,
The Birthday Party,
Inner City,
Kerrie Biddell,
Fela Kuti,
Bill Near,
Nirvana,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Technova,
Jesper Dahlback,
Au Pairs,
Wally Richardson,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Fortunes,
Barry Ungar,
The Mummies,
B.T. Express,
The Raincoats,
Suicide,
Hot Snakes,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Visage,
Black Flag,
CMW,
The Tremeloes,
Joe Smooth,
Jandek,
Zero Boys,
Vladislav Delay,
Big Daddy Kane,
Marshall Jefferson,
Harpers Bizarre,
John Coltrane,
Lee Hazlewood,
Roy Ayers,
The Music Machine,
Colin Newman,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ultravox,
The Real Kids,
Bobby Byrd,
Alphaville,
the Normal,
Smog,
Judy Mowatt,
OOIOO,
Youth Brigade,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Eric Dolphy,
Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach.
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.