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 Comoros and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Toronto.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 oboe 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 Letta Mbulu to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Wolf Eyes. All the underground hits.
All New Order tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Birthday Party record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
The Standells,
Deadbeat,
Von Mondo,
Inner City,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Amazonics,
Don Cherry,
The Wake,
Pet Shop Boys,
Supertramp,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Soft Machine,
Public Enemy,
R.M.O.,
Man Eating Sloth,
Make Up,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Flash Fearless,
Goldenarms,
OOIOO,
The Slits,
The Grass Roots,
Khruangbin,
Groovy Waters,
the Bar-Kays,
Al Stewart,
Basic Channel,
Wire,
L. Decosne,
Nick Fraelich,
The Mummies,
Con Funk Shun,
UT,
Nico,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Monolake,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Maurizio,
Gabor Szabo,
Ten City,
Organ,
Jandek,
Radiopuhelimet,
Andrew Hill,
Johnny Osbourne,
Eden Ahbez,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Harpers Bizarre,
Gregory Isaacs,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Smiths,
Warsaw,
The Offenders,
Flipper,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Icehouse,
Bobby Byrd,
Prince Buster,
These Immortal Souls,
The Flesh Eaters, The Flesh Eaters, The Flesh Eaters, The Flesh Eaters.
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.