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 Finland and from Lille.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Television to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Index. All the underground hits.
All Ultimate Spinach tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Cecil Taylor record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joensuu 1685 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Inner City,
Smog,
Parry Music,
Judy Mowatt,
Curtis Mayfield,
H. Thieme,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Gastr Del Sol,
F. McDonald,
Eric Copeland,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Au Pairs,
Franke,
Hot Snakes,
Marcia Griffiths,
Alison Limerick,
Bobby Womack,
Tomorrow,
The Pretty Things,
Altered Images,
Dark Day,
The Doobie Brothers,
Nation of Ulysses,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Zapp,
Charles Mingus,
Scrapy,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Crime,
The Monks,
Donald Byrd,
Drexciya,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Soulsonic Force,
X-102,
Von Mondo,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Ultra Naté,
Popol Vuh,
Y Pants,
Crooked Eye,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Birthday Party,
Mandrill,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Amon Düül II,
Bad Manners,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Marc Almond,
Sandy B,
Aswad,
Saccharine Trust,
Nas,
Ice-T,
The Happenings,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Cluster,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Alice Coltrane,
Rod Modell,
Josef K, Josef K, Josef K, Josef K.
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.