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 Grenada and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 arpeggiator 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 Sonny Sharrock to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Larry & the Blue Notes. All the underground hits.
All Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grandmaster Flash record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Dirtbombs record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scan 7,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cluster,
Anthony Braxton,
Barrington Levy,
Matthew Halsall,
Television,
Sun City Girls,
Vladislav Delay,
Blake Baxter,
Liliput,
Shoche,
Qualms,
Robert Görl,
Rufus Thomas,
Letta Mbulu,
Smog,
Mantronix,
Y Pants,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Supertramp,
Country Teasers,
ABC,
Johnny Osbourne,
Thompson Twins,
Stockholm Monsters,
Ohio Players,
Nick Fraelich,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Janne Schatter,
Interpol,
Ossler,
Excepter,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Gil Scott Heron,
Camberwell Now,
Jeru the Damaja,
Curtis Mayfield,
Underground Resistance,
Max Romeo,
The Grass Roots,
Little Man,
James White and The Blacks,
Popol Vuh,
Magazine,
L. Decosne,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Roxette,
Khruangbin,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Mr. Review,
the Bar-Kays,
Main Source,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Dark Day,
Youth Brigade,
Chrome,
Sonny Sharrock,
PIL,
ABBA,
Glambeats Corp.,
Joey Negro,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.