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 Tonga and from Lyon.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Warren Ellis to the jazz kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All Jawbox tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Starr record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare 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?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Jandek,
Au Pairs,
Intrusion,
This Heat,
Boz Scaggs,
Urselle,
The Blues Magoos,
La Düsseldorf,
Bill Wells,
Trumans Water,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Rites of Spring,
The Selecter,
In Retrospect,
The Saints,
Andrew Hill,
Terrestrial Tones,
Erasure,
Lungfish,
Saccharine Trust,
Hasil Adkins,
Donny Hathaway,
Country Teasers,
Public Enemy,
Magma,
Tom Boy,
Camberwell Now,
Minor Threat,
The United States of America,
Eric B and Rakim,
Eli Mardock,
Ohio Players,
Freddie Wadling,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Dead C,
Gang Starr,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Durutti Column,
Bobby Womack,
Suburban Knight,
Suicide,
Mission of Burma,
Grandmaster Flash,
Harmonia,
Bronski Beat,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
The Searchers,
The Litter,
Anthony Braxton,
The Mummies,
The Neon Judgement,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Cameo,
The Alarm Clocks,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Residents,
Jimmy McGriff,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Tears for Fears,
The Monks,
Bad Manners,
Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics.
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.