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 East Timor and from Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Lou Reed 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 Iggy Pop to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All Joey Negro tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Slackers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 spring reverb and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mars,
Dawn Penn,
This Heat,
Can,
Tears for Fears,
Aswad,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Boredoms,
The Electric Prunes,
Pole,
Kurtis Blow,
Matthew Halsall,
Grauzone,
Ultravox,
Eddi Front,
Harpers Bizarre,
Scott Walker,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Golliwogs,
the Sonics,
Graham Central Station,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Youth Brigade,
Smog,
Babytalk,
EPMD,
The Smoke,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Monochrome Set,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Althea and Donna,
Kas Product,
Scratch Acid,
Sonic Youth,
the Swans,
The Detroit Cobras,
Erykah Badu,
Sandy B,
Gerry Rafferty,
Bob Dylan,
Ponytail,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Five Americans,
The Buckinghams,
Public Enemy,
Model 500,
The Kinks,
Fugazi,
Joyce Sims,
Circle Jerks,
Tim Buckley,
Gang of Four,
The Mummies,
Peter & Gordon,
Hashim,
Boogie Down Productions,
Unrelated Segments,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Pretty Things,
Bauhaus,
10cc,
Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell, Soft Cell.
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.