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 Albania and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 guitar 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 Robert Hood to the jazz 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 the Bar-Kays. All the underground hits.
All Drive Like Jehu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Massinfluence 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a ABC record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barry Ungar,
Pagans,
Scan 7,
Khruangbin,
Grauzone,
Radiopuhelimet,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
James White and The Blacks,
Angry Samoans,
Sun Ra,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Barclay James Harvest,
Man Eating Sloth,
Talk Talk,
The Black Dice,
Dawn Penn,
Bobby Byrd,
The Flesh Eaters,
Sun City Girls,
KRS-One,
The Sonics,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
X-102,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Fuzztones,
The Shadows of Knight,
Jeff Lynne,
Ultra Naté,
Gang Gang Dance,
Oneida,
The Seeds,
Can,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Joensuu 1685,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Detroit Cobras,
Stiv Bators,
Black Bananas,
Lalo Schifrin,
48th St. Collective,
the Slits,
Sight & Sound,
Black Pus,
Lower 48,
Mo-Dettes,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Moss Icon,
EPMD,
The Golliwogs,
Judy Mowatt,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Eric Copeland,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Black Moon,
Popol Vuh,
Archie Shepp,
Hot Snakes,
Man Parrish,
Half Japanese,
Soft Machine,
In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect.
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.