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 Bhutan and from Lagos.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Suicide 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 Roy Ayers. All the underground hits.
All Black Pus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fort Wilson Riot 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mo-Dettes,
Harpers Bizarre,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Unwound,
Boogie Down Productions,
Robert Görl,
Jawbox,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Yaz,
Inner City,
Blake Baxter,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Mr. Review,
Barrington Levy,
Tubeway Army,
Aaron Thompson,
Essential Logic,
T.S.O.L.,
FM Einheit,
Technova,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Rotary Connection,
F. McDonald,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Cosmic Jokers,
The Invisible,
Desert Stars,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Gun Club,
Pagans,
Average White Band,
Moss Icon,
Throbbing Gristle,
Deakin,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kerrie Biddell,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Fire Engines,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Visage,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Iggy Pop,
Blossom Toes,
Sound Behaviour,
Fluxion,
Eric Copeland,
The Five Americans,
The Gories,
Underground Resistance,
Bauhaus,
Schoolly D,
David Bowie,
Silicon Teens,
Pere Ubu,
Subhumans,
The Angels of Light,
Ultimate Spinach,
Connie Case,
Kayak,
Wings,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.