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 Albania and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Shanghai.
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 sitar 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 Barclay James Harvest to the grunge 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 Traffic Nightmare. All the underground hits.
All Jimmy McGriff tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joyce Sims record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 sitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radiohead,
Yusef Lateef,
Radio Birdman,
Whodini,
Echospace,
Cal Tjader,
Gregory Isaacs,
Boz Scaggs,
Minor Threat,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Von Mondo,
Bizarre Inc.,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ultra Naté,
the Swans,
Robert Wyatt,
Don Cherry,
Panda Bear,
Dawn Penn,
Visage,
The Slackers,
The Motions,
Mr. Review,
Donald Byrd,
The Busters,
Lower 48,
The Index,
Stiv Bators,
Nas,
Black Sheep,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Althea and Donna,
The Slits,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Minny Pops,
Arab on Radar,
Vladislav Delay,
CMW,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Marcia Griffiths,
Erasure,
The Star Department,
Yaz,
Moss Icon,
PIL,
Gastr Del Sol,
Sandy B,
Skriet,
The Smiths,
Erykah Badu,
China Crisis,
Steve Hackett,
Lebanon Hanover,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Detroit Cobras,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Motorama,
The Music Machine,
The Skatalites,
The Techniques,
Saccharine Trust,
Pylon,
John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane, John Coltrane.
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.