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 Niger and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1966 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Halifax.
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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Mo-Dettes to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Throbbing Gristle. All the underground hits.
All Ohio Players tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fifty Foot Hose record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Inner City,
Ronnie Foster,
Slave,
Swell Maps,
the Human League,
Amazonics,
The Monks,
Charles Mingus,
Mars,
Gichy Dan,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Marshall Jefferson,
Cameo,
Gang Starr,
Underground Resistance,
Nils Olav,
DNA,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Maleditus Sound,
Warsaw,
Camberwell Now,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Toni Rubio,
Surgeon,
Popol Vuh,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Soulsonic Force,
Matthew Bourne,
Erykah Badu,
Leonard Cohen,
Hasil Adkins,
Organ,
Lee Hazlewood,
Sandy B,
Stereo Dub,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Marc Almond,
Drexciya,
Kurtis Blow,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Misunderstood,
DJ Style,
Sexual Harrassment,
Minnie Riperton,
Black Moon,
Tears for Fears,
Ultravox,
Howard Jones,
The Tremeloes,
Neu!,
JFA,
Lyres,
Dawn Penn,
Talk Talk,
John Foxx,
the Sonics,
Gil Scott Heron,
Fugazi,
A Flock of Seagulls,
John Holt,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian, Brand Nubian.
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.