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 Kenya and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1965 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Lagos.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the marimba 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 Hoover to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Colin Newman. All the underground hits.
All Sällskapet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gregory Isaacs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Smog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Grey Daturas,
Bill Near,
Moss Icon,
Zero Boys,
Gichy Dan,
Negative Approach,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Franke,
Fort Wilson Riot,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Leonard Cohen,
The Happenings,
Nas,
Essential Logic,
Don Cherry,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Cybotron,
The Zeros,
Television,
The Leaves,
Roger Hodgson,
Audionom,
Ice-T,
Eric Copeland,
Siglo XX,
Agent Orange,
The Names,
Metal Thangz,
Sex Pistols,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Barracudas,
Prince Buster,
Sällskapet,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Lee Hazlewood,
ABBA,
Traffic Nightmare,
DNA,
Babytalk,
La Düsseldorf,
Swans,
Michelle Simonal,
Dark Day,
New Age Steppers,
the Soft Cell,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Trumans Water,
The Wake,
Joensuu 1685,
The Monochrome Set,
U.S. Maple,
Arcadia,
Lalo Schifrin,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Wolf Eyes,
8 Eyed Spy,
Soul II Soul,
The Five Americans,
The Alarm Clocks,
Peter and Kerry,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.