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 Burkina and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 linndrum 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 Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Heaven 17. All the underground hits.
All Brand Nubian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Fifty Foot Hose,
Blancmange,
Donald Byrd,
Harmonia,
The Knickerbockers,
Jesper Dahlback,
Absolute Body Control,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Average White Band,
48th St. Collective,
the Fania All-Stars,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Doobie Brothers,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Pole,
Reuben Wilson,
Ice-T,
The Modern Lovers,
Byron Stingily,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Black Dice,
The Slits,
Barbara Tucker,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Lebanon Hanover,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Avey Tare,
The Monks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Marc Almond,
Stetsasonic,
The Motions,
The Buckinghams,
Skarface,
Josef K,
Barry Ungar,
Rosa Yemen,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Terrestrial Tones,
Neu!,
Soft Machine,
FM Einheit,
Delta 5,
Mantronix,
Minnie Riperton,
Schoolly D,
Joey Negro,
The Fortunes,
Lalo Schifrin,
Second Layer,
the Slits,
Spandau Ballet,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Lou Christie,
The Gories,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Blackbyrds,
Aural Exciters,
Sam Rivers,
Lightning Bolt,
Wire, Wire, Wire, Wire.
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.