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 Zambia and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 linndrum 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 Man Eating Sloth to the grunge 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All Minor Threat tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faraquet 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alton Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Yusef Lateef,
OOIOO,
Bob Dylan,
Kerrie Biddell,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Crispian St. Peters,
Dennis Brown,
The Red Krayola,
Depeche Mode,
Radiopuhelimet,
Can,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Pretty Things,
Freddie Wadling,
Gong,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Maurizio,
Oblivians,
Idris Muhammad,
the Germs,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Theoretical Girls,
Yazoo,
Matthew Bourne,
Aswad,
Anthony Braxton,
The Associates,
The Grass Roots,
Gregory Isaacs,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Groovy Waters,
World's Most,
The Skatalites,
Thee Headcoats,
Thompson Twins,
Sister Nancy,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Smoke,
Sly & The Family Stone,
John Coltrane,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Joey Negro,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Remains,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Neon Judgement,
Byron Stingily,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Scott Walker,
Roxy Music,
The Offenders,
Black Flag,
Darondo,
The Zeros,
Surgeon,
Cheater Slicks,
Schoolly D,
X-101,
The Misunderstood,
Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur, Vainqueur.
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.