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 Croatia and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 theremin 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 Wasted Youth to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 The Skatalites. All the underground hits.
All Oblivians tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bang on a Can All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Graham Central Station record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
It's A Beautiful Day,
T.S.O.L.,
David Axelrod,
K-Klass,
Index,
Soul II Soul,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Wire,
The Fall,
Radiohead,
Organ,
Audionom,
the Fania All-Stars,
Toni Rubio,
The Sonics,
Scrapy,
The Buckinghams,
Cecil Taylor,
Make Up,
Nils Olav,
Minny Pops,
The Grass Roots,
Drive Like Jehu,
Severed Heads,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Swell Maps,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Underground Resistance,
Mars,
Easy Going,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Vogues,
The Pop Group,
X-Ray Spex,
Scratch Acid,
The Cowsills,
Dead Boys,
Bush Tetras,
Slick Rick,
Bootsy Collins,
Monolake,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Glenn Branca,
Groovy Waters,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Mojo Men,
FM Einheit,
MDC,
Crooked Eye,
Faraquet,
the Soft Cell,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Trumans Water,
Niagra,
Curtis Mayfield,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Colin Newman,
Brick,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Echospace,
Nirvana,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.