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 Tajikistan and from Portland.
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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Grandmaster Flash to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Move. All the underground hits.
All MDC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vaughan Mason & Crew 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Five Americans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wasted Youth,
Nirvana,
Prince Buster,
The Barracudas,
Tim Buckley,
David Bowie,
The Toasters,
Agitation Free,
Kerri Chandler,
Stetsasonic,
Quantec,
Charles Mingus,
The Cramps,
Vainqueur,
the Fania All-Stars,
Kool Moe Dee,
Ludus,
Carl Craig,
Avey Tare,
Banda Bassotti,
Ronan,
Colin Newman,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Cymande,
Groovy Waters,
Sight & Sound,
Oneida,
Faust,
Popol Vuh,
Crooked Eye,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Durutti Column,
James White and The Blacks,
Nik Kershaw,
Joe Finger,
Wally Richardson,
Peter and Kerry,
Minutemen,
Make Up,
The Gladiators,
Radiopuhelimet,
Marvin Gaye,
The Blackbyrds,
The Knickerbockers,
Pussy Galore,
Morten Harket,
John Lydon,
Shuggie Otis,
The Saints,
The Detroit Cobras,
Rakim,
Aswad,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Human League,
Man Eating Sloth,
Scan 7,
Alice Coltrane,
The Fall,
Jeff Mills,
Mars,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Cowsills,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.