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 Namibia and from Columbus.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pretty Things to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Unwound. All the underground hits.
All Q and Not U tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Michelle Simonal record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tom Boy,
LL Cool J,
Unrelated Segments,
Desert Stars,
Hot Snakes,
The Gladiators,
David McCallum,
Faraquet,
T. Rex,
Visage,
Sight & Sound,
Los Fastidios,
Livin' Joy,
The Knickerbockers,
Chrome,
Roy Ayers,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Dark Day,
The Black Dice,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Banda Bassotti,
Wally Richardson,
K-Klass,
Crispy Ambulance,
New York Dolls,
Dave Gahan,
Shuggie Otis,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Ronnie Foster,
Scion,
Anakelly,
Model 500,
Jeff Mills,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Second Layer,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Vainqueur,
Piero Umiliani,
Moss Icon,
Half Japanese,
The Litter,
Bad Manners,
cv313,
Magma,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Ken Boothe,
The Flesh Eaters,
Blake Baxter,
Average White Band,
The Dave Clark Five,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Don Cherry,
Throbbing Gristle,
The J.B.'s,
Fugazi,
Sun City Girls,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lindisfarne,
The Walker Brothers,
Section 25, Section 25, Section 25, Section 25.
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.