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 Sudan and from Winnipeg.
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 Seoul and Copenhagen.
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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Fort Wilson Riot to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 PIL. All the underground hits.
All Buzzcocks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Soul II Soul record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonny Sharrock,
Gong,
Agent Orange,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Ten City,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Dark Day,
Heaven 17,
Al Stewart,
Nico,
Excepter,
Mary Jane Girls,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Monochrome Set,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Supertramp,
Joe Smooth,
Inner City,
The Monks,
Massinfluence,
Index,
The Gun Club,
The Beau Brummels,
Lou Reed,
Eyeless In Gaza,
John Coltrane,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Tim Buckley,
Basic Channel,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Dirtbombs,
Isaac Hayes,
Slick Rick,
Electric Prunes,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sound Behaviour,
Peter and Kerry,
KRS-One,
Los Fastidios,
Sun City Girls,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Remains,
Juan Atkins,
Tom Boy,
Terrestrial Tones,
Radiohead,
Cecil Taylor,
Howard Jones,
Tropical Tobacco,
Hardrive,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Rekid,
Shuggie Otis,
Neil Young,
The Gladiators,
James Chance & The Contortions,
This Heat,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Fluxion,
Quando Quango,
The Neon Judgement, The Neon Judgement, The Neon Judgement, The Neon Judgement.
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.