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 Malawi and from Beijing.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Eyeless In Gaza to the techno 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 Negative Approach. All the underground hits.
All F. McDonald tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Glambeats Corp. 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Idris Muhammad record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lalo Schifrin,
Gerry Rafferty,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Jawbox,
The Sonics,
The United States of America,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Frankie Knuckles,
ABBA,
Man Parrish,
the Germs,
Infiniti,
Au Pairs,
Adolescents,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Icehouse,
Joensuu 1685,
Bootsy Collins,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Curtis Mayfield,
One Last Wish,
The Slackers,
E-Dancer,
Soft Cell,
Nick Fraelich,
Minor Threat,
Derrick May,
The Cramps,
Minnie Riperton,
Camberwell Now,
The Golliwogs,
The Cowsills,
Deadbeat,
Wasted Youth,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Vogues,
the Slits,
the Soft Cell,
Suicide,
Yusef Lateef,
Cybotron,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
L. Decosne,
The Residents,
Spoonie Gee,
Newcleus,
The Electric Prunes,
Bizarre Inc.,
Arab on Radar,
Hoover,
Half Japanese,
Chrome,
Neil Young,
The Shadows of Knight,
Robert Wyatt,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Barracudas,
Kas Product,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Eve St. Jones,
The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos, The Blues Magoos.
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.