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 Armenia and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 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 8 Eyed Spy to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 B.T. Express. All the underground hits.
All Leonard Cohen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Young Marble Giants 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 guitar and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Letta Mbulu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Metal Thangz,
Heaven 17,
La Düsseldorf,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Archie Shepp,
Radiopuhelimet,
Amon Düül,
a-ha,
MDC,
Joyce Sims,
Underground Resistance,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Crispy Ambulance,
Anthony Braxton,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Skarface,
Janne Schatter,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Roger Hodgson,
The Electric Prunes,
The Moody Blues,
The Count Five,
PIL,
Gregory Isaacs,
Surgeon,
Matthew Bourne,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The New Christs,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Funky Four + One,
Sun Ra,
Kas Product,
The Litter,
Sarah Menescal,
Adolescents,
Leonard Cohen,
Unwound,
Barry Ungar,
Scientists,
Lightning Bolt,
Oblivians,
The Vogues,
Jimmy McGriff,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Star Department,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Gang Green,
Lyres,
Kevin Saunderson,
David McCallum,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Skaos,
Mission of Burma,
X-Ray Spex,
Fatback Band,
Yusef Lateef,
The Velvet Underground,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Tres Demented,
The Golliwogs,
The Buckinghams,
Agent Orange, Agent Orange, Agent Orange, Agent Orange.
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.