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 Iraq and from Toronto.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Steve Hackett to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Residents. All the underground hits.
All Scan 7 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Wally Richardson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Moon,
The Cowsills,
Marine Girls,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Alarm Clocks,
Arthur Verocai,
Black Bananas,
Dead Boys,
Rhythm & Sound,
James White and The Blacks,
Alison Limerick,
The Sound,
the Soft Cell,
Main Source,
Ronnie Foster,
Easy Going,
X-101,
Faraquet,
The J.B.'s,
The New Christs,
Harmonia,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Evens,
Blossom Toes,
Sun Ra,
Grey Daturas,
Barbara Tucker,
The Angels of Light,
David Bowie,
Flipper,
Godley & Creme,
Crash Course in Science,
Charles Mingus,
Scion,
DNA,
Vainqueur,
Sun City Girls,
Amazonics,
The Count Five,
The Misunderstood,
The Cure,
The Pop Group,
Franke,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Bronski Beat,
Rod Modell,
Pussy Galore,
Silicon Teens,
The Tremeloes,
The Standells,
Big Daddy Kane,
Sixth Finger,
Wally Richardson,
The Blackbyrds,
Deakin,
The Index,
Marmalade,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Blues Magoos,
Unwound,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Idris Muhammad,
Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne, Lindisfarne.
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.