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 Greece and from Bologna.
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 1965 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the oboe 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 Infiniti to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Toni Rubio. All the underground hits.
All Roy Ayers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Underground Resistance record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Unwound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Beasts of Bourbon,
Anthony Braxton,
Swans,
Lee Hazlewood,
Depeche Mode,
New Order,
Altered Images,
Sam Rivers,
Charles Mingus,
The Five Americans,
The Electric Prunes,
Lindisfarne,
The United States of America,
Minutemen,
Camouflage,
The Mojo Men,
The Searchers,
Leonard Cohen,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Agitation Free,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Martian,
Livin' Joy,
the Soft Cell,
Sexual Harrassment,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Babytalk,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Drexciya,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Grass Roots,
Dual Sessions,
Technova,
David McCallum,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Happenings,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Jacques Brel,
Freddie Wadling,
Bill Wells,
R.M.O.,
The Techniques,
The Doors,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Funky Four + One,
Godley & Creme,
Outsiders,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Aloha Tigers,
Toni Rubio,
Black Flag,
The Leaves,
World's Most,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Pole,
Ponytail,
Angry Samoans,
Unrelated Segments,
Young Marble Giants,
Barclay James Harvest,
Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy.
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.