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 Tanzania and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 Donald Fagen 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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks to the rock 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 Public Enemy. All the underground hits.
All a-ha tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Curtis Mayfield record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Sonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator 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?
Kas Product,
PIL,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Selecter,
Buzzcocks,
ABBA,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Flesh Eaters,
Cameo,
The Last Poets,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Sound,
Alton Ellis,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ten City,
Radiohead,
Pussy Galore,
ABC,
Wolf Eyes,
La Düsseldorf,
The Beau Brummels,
Barclay James Harvest,
Throbbing Gristle,
Royal Trux,
Laurel Aitken,
Popol Vuh,
The Smoke,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
John Cale,
Gang Starr,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Pierre Henry,
Slave,
Bobby Sherman,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Gap Band,
Easy Going,
China Crisis,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Steve Hackett,
Desert Stars,
Lightning Bolt,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Durutti Column,
Sparks,
Gichy Dan,
Traffic Nightmare,
Al Stewart,
David Bowie,
Kerri Chandler,
The Mummies,
Johnny Clarke,
Underground Resistance,
Au Pairs,
the Normal,
Roger Hodgson,
FM Einheit,
Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily, Byron Stingily.
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.