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 Eritrea and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Qualms to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry. All the underground hits.
All Public Enemy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yellowson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gian Franco Pienzio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Freddie Wadling,
The Slackers,
New York Dolls,
The Index,
The Pretty Things,
Sexual Harrassment,
Wasted Youth,
Lebanon Hanover,
Lindisfarne,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Gun Club,
The Last Poets,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ralphi Rosario,
Yellowson,
The Blues Magoos,
Deepchord,
Tommy Roe,
Kenny Larkin,
Alice Coltrane,
48th St. Collective,
Suburban Knight,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Unwound,
Roxette,
Sandy B,
Mad Mike,
Procol Harum,
Alphaville,
The Slits,
The Wake,
The Fortunes,
Franke,
The Sonics,
Archie Shepp,
Au Pairs,
Pet Shop Boys,
Outsiders,
Circle Jerks,
Metal Thangz,
Blossom Toes,
T. Rex,
Crispy Ambulance,
Glambeats Corp.,
Yusef Lateef,
The Residents,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sun Ra,
Davy DMX,
FM Einheit,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cecil Taylor,
EPMD,
Donald Byrd,
Marine Girls,
Frankie Knuckles,
Fad Gadget,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Marshall Jefferson,
Amon Düül II,
Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young, Neil Young.
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.