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 Samoa and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Lagos.
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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Star Department to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Remains. All the underground hits.
All Swans tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dark Day record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Buzzcocks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Trojans,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Fluxion,
Au Pairs,
Q and Not U,
Absolute Body Control,
June of 44,
New Age Steppers,
The Invisible,
The Detroit Cobras,
R.M.O.,
Massinfluence,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Babytalk,
Siglo XX,
Jesper Dahlback,
The Standells,
Visage,
Television Personalities,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Maleditus Sound,
Moebius,
Todd Terry,
The Wake,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Aloha Tigers,
Malaria!,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Scott Walker,
Masters at Work,
The Red Krayola,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Matthew Halsall,
Donny Hathaway,
Lindisfarne,
Crooked Eye,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Los Fastidios,
Pierre Henry,
Roxy Music,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Eddi Front,
Johnny Clarke,
Minutemen,
Roy Ayers,
Cameo,
Josef K,
Quadrant,
Wire,
Eli Mardock,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Lucky Dragons,
Rosa Yemen,
Terry Callier,
Grey Daturas,
Soul II Soul,
Blossom Toes,
Amon Düül,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe, Tommy Roe.
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.