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 Ghana and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the snare 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 Electric Light Orchestra to the electroclash 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 Henry Cow. All the underground hits.
All Lindisfarne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aloha Tigers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Black Sheep record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Saccharine Trust,
Aloha Tigers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Nas,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Techniques,
Bush Tetras,
Smog,
Idris Muhammad,
Robert Görl,
Siglo XX,
Nik Kershaw,
X-101,
Nation of Ulysses,
Max Romeo,
Derrick May,
Buzzcocks,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Sandy B,
One Last Wish,
Rekid,
Yusef Lateef,
Cymande,
Soul II Soul,
Technova,
Tres Demented,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Amazonics,
Magazine,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Sex Pistols,
Alton Ellis,
The Kinks,
Deepchord,
The Star Department,
Lalo Schifrin,
Skarface,
Theoretical Girls,
Arab on Radar,
Lakeside,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Franke,
Ten City,
Rites of Spring,
James White and The Blacks,
Joensuu 1685,
Nirvana,
Marcia Griffiths,
Intrusion,
Slave,
Gabor Szabo,
Negative Approach,
Harpers Bizarre,
Das Ding,
The Seeds,
Barclay James Harvest,
Sixth Finger,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Mission of Burma,
Black Moon,
Pere Ubu,
Hashim,
Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail, Ponytail.
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.