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 Slovakia and from Tokyo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 marimba 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 Stockholm Monsters to the rock 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 Jeff Lynne. All the underground hits.
All Sister Nancy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siouxsie and the Banshees record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jandek record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Slick Rick,
Symarip,
Black Bananas,
Blancmange,
The Selecter,
Lucky Dragons,
The Monochrome Set,
The Sonics,
Connie Case,
Anthony Braxton,
Don Cherry,
June of 44,
Gang Starr,
Interpol,
Oblivians,
Junior Murvin,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Swans,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
PIL,
Cal Tjader,
Unrelated Segments,
Colin Newman,
Negative Approach,
Brothers Johnson,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Delon & Dalcan,
MDC,
Rotary Connection,
Mandrill,
Accadde A,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Derrick May,
A Certain Ratio,
the Germs,
Au Pairs,
The Shadows of Knight,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Dark Day,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Pierre Henry,
The Electric Prunes,
Mars,
Eve St. Jones,
Vainqueur,
DNA,
U.S. Maple,
Guru Guru,
Michelle Simonal,
Pulsallama,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Urselle,
X-101,
Kas Product,
Lyres,
This Heat,
David Axelrod,
The Mojo Men,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Technova,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Black Dice, The Black Dice, The Black Dice, The Black Dice.
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.