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 Eritrea and from Lyon.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Fugazi to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Dark Day. All the underground hits.
All Louis and Bebe Barron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Negative Approach 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 The Zeros record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pere Ubu,
MDC,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Joe Smooth,
Gang Green,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Fire Engines,
The Star Department,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Popol Vuh,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Martian,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Al Stewart,
Reuben Wilson,
Prince Buster,
The Fortunes,
Urselle,
Donny Hathaway,
Accadde A,
Eden Ahbez,
Liliput,
Josef K,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Erasure,
Minutemen,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bill Wells,
Donald Byrd,
Iggy Pop,
The New Christs,
Janne Schatter,
Sixth Finger,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
the Bar-Kays,
Ultimate Spinach,
Warsaw,
Public Image Ltd.,
Public Enemy,
Laurel Aitken,
Ronnie Foster,
Tres Demented,
Shuggie Otis,
Marmalade,
Schoolly D,
Skriet,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Technova,
The Invisible,
Bill Near,
Matthew Halsall,
The Count Five,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Henry Cow,
Black Pus,
Grandmaster Flash,
Procol Harum,
The Black Dice,
Anthony Braxton,
Absolute Body Control,
Idris Muhammad,
Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker.
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.