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 Denmark and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 guitar 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 Derrick May to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon. All the underground hits.
All The Buckinghams tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jimmy McGriff 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ornette Coleman record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gladiators,
Ludus,
Althea and Donna,
The Move,
Soft Machine,
Carl Craig,
Crooked Eye,
Sun City Girls,
AZ,
ABBA,
Mad Mike,
Robert Wyatt,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Theoretical Girls,
Animal Collective,
Scott Walker,
Tim Buckley,
Ten City,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The New Christs,
Bill Wells,
Lou Christie,
The Busters,
Electric Light Orchestra,
T.S.O.L.,
Soul Sonic Force,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Gun Club,
Judy Mowatt,
U.S. Maple,
Minutemen,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sarah Menescal,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Faust,
Janne Schatter,
The Divine Comedy,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Raincoats,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Names,
Joy Division,
KRS-One,
Gang of Four,
Bobby Sherman,
MC5,
the Germs,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Johnny Osbourne,
Radiohead,
Ralphi Rosario,
Scratch Acid,
Oneida,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Neu!,
The Monochrome Set,
X-102,
Bootsy Collins,
Agent Orange,
Ornette Coleman,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.