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 Tajikistan and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Edmonton.
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 spring reverb 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 Jesper Dahlback to the rock kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Clear Light. All the underground hits.
All The Red Krayola tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Major Organ And The Adding Machine record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 mellotron and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Human League,
David Axelrod,
Reuben Wilson,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Negative Approach,
Don Cherry,
The Stooges,
The Victims,
Rakim,
Cluster,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Hoover,
Unwound,
The Gap Band,
Outsiders,
Minor Threat,
Easy Going,
Anthony Braxton,
The Fugs,
Jawbox,
Excepter,
Jimmy McGriff,
Q and Not U,
Byron Stingily,
David McCallum,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Andrew Hill,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Blackbyrds,
Bang On A Can,
Faust,
Lalann,
Rod Modell,
Idris Muhammad,
Tubeway Army,
The Walker Brothers,
Soul II Soul,
X-Ray Spex,
Deakin,
June Days,
The Kinks,
Barbara Tucker,
The Star Department,
The Durutti Column,
The Count Five,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Tim Buckley,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Dark Day,
The Five Americans,
48th St. Collective,
Tres Demented,
The Cowsills,
Lucky Dragons,
the Germs,
The Real Kids, The Real Kids, The Real Kids, The Real Kids.
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.