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 Afghanistan and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Pierre Henry to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Thee Headcoats. All the underground hits.
All Oneida tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kings Of Tomorrow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Barbara Tucker,
Youth Brigade,
Crime,
Davy DMX,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Zapp,
Maleditus Sound,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
the Bar-Kays,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Man Eating Sloth,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Eurythmics,
Thee Headcoats,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Trojans,
Frankie Knuckles,
Section 25,
Donny Hathaway,
Joyce Sims,
Accadde A,
Michelle Simonal,
Aloha Tigers,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Sandy B,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Golliwogs,
Ultimate Spinach,
Eli Mardock,
Lungfish,
Popol Vuh,
Country Teasers,
Tres Demented,
Sugar Minott,
Japan,
L. Decosne,
Simply Red,
The United States of America,
Eve St. Jones,
Brass Construction,
Suburban Knight,
Chrome,
Amazonics,
The Seeds,
The Knickerbockers,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lee Hazlewood,
ABBA,
Unrelated Segments,
Altered Images,
the Slits,
Radiohead,
Intrusion,
Radiopuhelimet,
Ice-T,
Fear,
Bang On A Can,
Nirvana,
ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC.
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.