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 Monaco and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 oboe 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 Tears for Fears to the techno kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 David Bowie. All the underground hits.
All the Association tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Roxette 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Johnny Clarke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Peter and Kerry,
Swell Maps,
Barclay James Harvest,
X-101,
A Certain Ratio,
The Monks,
Janne Schatter,
The Fire Engines,
The Leaves,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Mummies,
The Smoke,
Amazonics,
Pere Ubu,
Dennis Brown,
Andrew Hill,
Index,
Lalann,
Basic Channel,
Joy Division,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Groovy Waters,
Althea and Donna,
Nas,
Ohio Players,
Fear,
The Dead C,
The Invisible,
Section 25,
Stetsasonic,
the Slits,
Robert Wyatt,
Deakin,
Black Pus,
The Misunderstood,
Lakeside,
Johnny Osbourne,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
ABC,
Warren Ellis,
Glambeats Corp.,
Bill Wells,
The Names,
Kas Product,
Maleditus Sound,
Slave,
Donald Byrd,
Y Pants,
Marine Girls,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
John Holt,
Can,
Quadrant,
Funkadelic,
Malaria!,
Popol Vuh,
the Soft Cell,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme, Godley & Creme.
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.