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 Switzerland and from Taipei.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Rakim to the disco kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade. All the underground hits.
All Slave tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ossler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultimate Spinach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Godley & Creme,
Marshall Jefferson,
Massinfluence,
cv313,
Little Man,
Q and Not U,
F. McDonald,
The Sonics,
Soul Sonic Force,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Vogues,
Monks,
The Birthday Party,
Nirvana,
Suburban Knight,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
David McCallum,
Matthew Halsall,
Pylon,
Magazine,
Maleditus Sound,
Von Mondo,
PIL,
Jandek,
Harry Pussy,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Susan Cadogan,
Alice Coltrane,
Pierre Henry,
James White and The Blacks,
Quantec,
Brick,
the Association,
Section 25,
Goldenarms,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Grass Roots,
Flamin' Groovies,
B.T. Express,
Moby Grape,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Technova,
Sun City Girls,
Sex Pistols,
Stereo Dub,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Moebius,
Gang Starr,
Infiniti,
Monolake,
Kool Moe Dee,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Morten Harket,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Soft Machine,
Motorama,
CMW,
Fatback Band,
Nils Olav,
Be Bop Deluxe,
the Germs,
Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach, Ultimate Spinach.
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.