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 Marshall Islands and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Calgary.
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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Cecil Taylor to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Lyres. All the underground hits.
All Neil Young tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ituana record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Black Dice record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alison Limerick,
the Sonics,
Rites of Spring,
Interpol,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
MDC,
The Wake,
Dennis Brown,
Peter and Kerry,
Derrick May,
The Star Department,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Detroit Cobras,
Lindisfarne,
The Fall,
ABC,
Reagan Youth,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Aaron Thompson,
Theoretical Girls,
Erykah Badu,
James White and The Blacks,
The Birthday Party,
The Gap Band,
Subhumans,
Scan 7,
Crooked Eye,
Maurizio,
Dave Gahan,
Alphaville,
Ohio Players,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sällskapet,
Marcia Griffiths,
Cal Tjader,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
The Barracudas,
Suicide,
Ralphi Rosario,
Marc Almond,
Eric Dolphy,
Essential Logic,
Neu!,
Sarah Menescal,
Man Parrish,
Lee Hazlewood,
X-102,
Cecil Taylor,
Spoonie Gee,
Alice Coltrane,
Bobby Sherman,
Radiohead,
Idris Muhammad,
Minor Threat,
Brass Construction,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Juan Atkins,
Toni Rubio,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
KRS-One,
Donny Hathaway,
Black Flag,
Mad Mike,
Blossom Toes, Blossom Toes, Blossom Toes, Blossom Toes.
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.