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 Haiti and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 Holger Czukay 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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud to the electroclash 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 Vaughan Mason & Crew. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Graham Central Station 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Kinks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Marmalade,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Rites of Spring,
The Five Americans,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Sarah Menescal,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Jesper Dahlback,
Aswad,
the Slits,
Graham Central Station,
New York Dolls,
Minutemen,
The Fortunes,
Brick,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Detroit Cobras,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Marvin Gaye,
The Dead C,
Scratch Acid,
Marine Girls,
Piero Umiliani,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Iggy Pop,
The Invisible,
Derrick May,
Black Flag,
Radio Birdman,
Gichy Dan,
Subhumans,
Lungfish,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Techniques,
Nik Kershaw,
Crispy Ambulance,
Kaleidoscope,
Terry Callier,
Delta 5,
Donny Hathaway,
Schoolly D,
Pussy Galore,
Brand Nubian,
The Names,
Bang On A Can,
Zero Boys,
CMW,
A Certain Ratio,
Eden Ahbez,
Alphaville,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Human League,
Drive Like Jehu,
KRS-One,
Jeff Lynne,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Tropical Tobacco,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lucky Dragons,
the Bar-Kays,
The Smiths,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.