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 Ethiopia and from Mexico City.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Basic Channel to the jazz kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Mars. All the underground hits.
All A Certain Ratio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Residents record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Oblivians,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Suicide,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Technova,
Rotary Connection,
Roger Hodgson,
DNA,
Scan 7,
The Saints,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Liliput,
Matthew Halsall,
The Martian,
Nils Olav,
The Leaves,
Grey Daturas,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Nation of Ulysses,
Peter & Gordon,
Cal Tjader,
Gang of Four,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Supertramp,
The Walker Brothers,
Dorothy Ashby,
Vainqueur,
The Electric Prunes,
Saccharine Trust,
Alice Coltrane,
the Sonics,
The Five Americans,
Bobby Sherman,
Faust,
The Motions,
Aaron Thompson,
Kenny Larkin,
Neu!,
Byron Stingily,
Bill Near,
Sugar Minott,
Heaven 17,
10cc,
Unrelated Segments,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Motorama,
Depeche Mode,
The Remains,
MC5,
James White and The Blacks,
Funky Four + One,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Mojo Men,
The Velvet Underground,
Tom Boy,
Anthony Braxton,
Moss Icon,
Leonard Cohen,
Terrestrial Tones,
Wolf Eyes,
Altered Images, Altered Images, Altered Images, Altered Images.
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.