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 St Lucia and from Milan.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 David Bowie 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 Von Mondo to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All The Techniques tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Khruangbin 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 an oboe and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Radio Birdman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
La Düsseldorf,
Gabor Szabo,
Peter and Kerry,
The Angels of Light,
Circle Jerks,
Scion,
The Smiths,
the Fania All-Stars,
Cymande,
L. Decosne,
Yellowson,
Massinfluence,
The Slackers,
Bang On A Can,
Isaac Hayes,
New Age Steppers,
The Black Dice,
Colin Newman,
Gang Green,
Jerry's Kids,
Tom Boy,
Toni Rubio,
Kaleidoscope,
Ludus,
Hashim,
Prince Buster,
the Bar-Kays,
The Seeds,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Tommy Roe,
The Leaves,
Gichy Dan,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Barracudas,
Rotary Connection,
Rapeman,
The Gladiators,
Davy DMX,
Soul II Soul,
Nik Kershaw,
Bizarre Inc.,
Sun Ra,
Quadrant,
Rufus Thomas,
Man Eating Sloth,
Vladislav Delay,
Bobby Sherman,
Whodini,
MDC,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Hoover,
Nick Fraelich,
China Crisis,
Boredoms,
Fear,
Ultra Naté,
The Index,
The Red Krayola,
Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy, Scrapy.
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.