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 Eritrea and from Mumbai.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 techno 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 Ludus. All the underground hits.
All Severed Heads tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Hood 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Japan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Soft Machine,
Matthew Bourne,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Pole,
Essential Logic,
Adolescents,
KRS-One,
Jandek,
The Dave Clark Five,
Easy Going,
Section 25,
The Alarm Clocks,
Lakeside,
Roy Ayers,
Pussy Galore,
Brick,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Sun City Girls,
Von Mondo,
Johnny Osbourne,
Freddie Wadling,
Delta 5,
Wings,
Todd Rundgren,
Pet Shop Boys,
Liliput,
Shoche,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sister Nancy,
8 Eyed Spy,
The Evens,
Crash Course in Science,
Eve St. Jones,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Big Daddy Kane,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lalo Schifrin,
X-101,
Terrestrial Tones,
Harry Pussy,
The Techniques,
Sällskapet,
Angry Samoans,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Associates,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Cure,
Deadbeat,
Black Pus,
LL Cool J,
Eden Ahbez,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Kenny Larkin,
The Fall,
The Saints,
Eurythmics,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Matthew Halsall,
Jeff Lynne,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.