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 Grenada and from Jakarta.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 guitar 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 Fort Wilson Riot to the dance 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 Laurel Aitken. All the underground hits.
All Liaisons Dangereuses tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bootsy Collins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Monks,
X-101,
PIL,
The Selecter,
La Düsseldorf,
Sun City Girls,
Robert Wyatt,
Iggy Pop,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Ice-T,
Don Cherry,
Vainqueur,
Suicide,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Popol Vuh,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Al Stewart,
Robert Görl,
The Durutti Column,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Black Moon,
The Mojo Men,
Lindisfarne,
Peter and Kerry,
The Seeds,
Carl Craig,
The Fortunes,
Roger Hodgson,
Animal Collective,
Marmalade,
Livin' Joy,
Pharoah Sanders,
Interpol,
The Motions,
Neu!,
Girls At Our Best!,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Soft Machine,
Bizarre Inc.,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Wings,
Procol Harum,
Stetsasonic,
Joe Finger,
K-Klass,
The Birthday Party,
Bill Wells,
The Skatalites,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Urselle,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Theoretical Girls,
Marc Almond,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ponytail,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Divine Comedy,
The Five Americans,
Dawn Penn,
The Residents,
Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes, Wolf Eyes.
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.