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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Woodstock.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the güiro 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 Man Eating Sloth to the rap 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 Absolute Body Control. All the underground hits.
All T.S.O.L. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Anthony Braxton record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 clarinet and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Half Japanese record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Hood,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Bill Wells,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Neon Judgement,
Andrew Hill,
One Last Wish,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Idris Muhammad,
X-101,
Chris & Cosey,
Siglo XX,
The Flesh Eaters,
Q and Not U,
Oblivians,
Sister Nancy,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Angry Samoans,
The Skatalites,
Massinfluence,
Charles Mingus,
Jacques Brel,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Altered Images,
The Kinks,
Arthur Verocai,
The Last Poets,
The Dead C,
Henry Cow,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Toasters,
Arab on Radar,
Section 25,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Nils Olav,
Joy Division,
The Remains,
Joyce Sims,
The Vogues,
The United States of America,
The Raincoats,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ohio Players,
Tropical Tobacco,
Nik Kershaw,
Lee Hazlewood,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The American Breed,
Fat Boys,
Amon Düül II,
The Saints,
Boredoms,
Crispian St. Peters,
Con Funk Shun,
Hashim,
This Heat,
Roxy Music, Roxy Music, Roxy Music, Roxy Music.
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.