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 South Sudan and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1960 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Spoonie Gee to the techno 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 Matthew Bourne. All the underground hits.
All Teenage Jesus and the Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brass Construction 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Erasure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
The Smiths,
Sonic Youth,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The Misunderstood,
L. Decosne,
Donald Byrd,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Kerri Chandler,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Brothers Johnson,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Model 500,
China Crisis,
Essential Logic,
Alison Limerick,
Moss Icon,
Fad Gadget,
Gang Starr,
Dead Boys,
X-101,
Joey Negro,
Pharoah Sanders,
X-102,
Sällskapet,
Slick Rick,
The Cowsills,
Cecil Taylor,
Gabor Szabo,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Crispy Ambulance,
Nick Fraelich,
UT,
In Retrospect,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Man Parrish,
Arcadia,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Tears for Fears,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Dave Clark Five,
Fugazi,
Radio Birdman,
Clear Light,
Jandek,
U.S. Maple,
Gil Scott Heron,
Althea and Donna,
Amazonics,
Hasil Adkins,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
World's Most,
The Sound,
Vainqueur,
June of 44,
the Association,
Depeche Mode,
Audionom,
Black Pus,
Mars,
Stereo Dub,
Pylon,
Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Ornette Coleman.
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.