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 Syria and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Mummies to the jazz 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 Stetsasonic. All the underground hits.
All Byron Stingily tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Major Organ And The Adding Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lucky Dragons record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Country Teasers,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Graham Central Station,
World's Most,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Flipper,
The Invisible,
The Doobie Brothers,
Fad Gadget,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Electric Prunes,
Faraquet,
Johnny Osbourne,
In Retrospect,
DNA,
Flash Fearless,
Traffic Nightmare,
Trumans Water,
Monolake,
Neil Young,
Panda Bear,
Smog,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Pulsallama,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Sound,
the Fania All-Stars,
Fela Kuti,
Bobby Byrd,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Wake,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Fortunes,
Average White Band,
Brick,
New Age Steppers,
Tommy Roe,
Mandrill,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Bobby Womack,
Arab on Radar,
Lee Hazlewood,
Brand Nubian,
The Angels of Light,
Funky Four + One,
John Lydon,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Quantec,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Public Enemy,
Second Layer,
Pere Ubu,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Big Daddy Kane,
Bill Near,
EPMD,
Yaz,
The Residents, The Residents, The Residents, The Residents.
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.