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 Mali and from Tehran.
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 1967 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Paris.
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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the linndrum 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 OOIOO to the dance 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 Dark Day. All the underground hits.
All Moss Icon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Massinfluence record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Amon Düül record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alton Ellis,
The Real Kids,
Janne Schatter,
Alison Limerick,
Josef K,
Metal Thangz,
Davy DMX,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Black Dice,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
L. Decosne,
The Grass Roots,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Kaleidoscope,
The Durutti Column,
The Angels of Light,
Ken Boothe,
Suburban Knight,
Electric Prunes,
Grandmaster Flash,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Wally Richardson,
Bobby Hutcherson,
A Certain Ratio,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
KRS-One,
Fatback Band,
Roxy Music,
New Order,
The Evens,
The Barracudas,
Nas,
Average White Band,
Minnie Riperton,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Marmalade,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Can,
FM Einheit,
ABC,
Cheater Slicks,
X-Ray Spex,
OOIOO,
the Association,
Con Funk Shun,
The Searchers,
Section 25,
Fat Boys,
Amon Düül II,
Terrestrial Tones,
Popol Vuh,
Barry Ungar,
Main Source,
Johnny Clarke,
Echospace,
Television Personalities,
Guru Guru,
The Martian,
Livin' Joy,
Henry Cow,
Severed Heads,
the Germs,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.