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 Slovakia and from Delhi.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 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 Swans to the dance 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 Electric Prunes. All the underground hits.
All Glenn Branca tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Moebius record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Gap Band,
Flash Fearless,
Sister Nancy,
Nils Olav,
The Fire Engines,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Boz Scaggs,
Jeff Lynne,
MC5,
Marine Girls,
Mary Jane Girls,
Faust,
La Düsseldorf,
Vainqueur,
Tubeway Army,
Bizarre Inc.,
Absolute Body Control,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Swans,
Letta Mbulu,
Nik Kershaw,
Silicon Teens,
Darondo,
Agitation Free,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Adolescents,
K-Klass,
UT,
The Names,
Alice Coltrane,
Parry Music,
Procol Harum,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Laurel Aitken,
The Moody Blues,
Tim Buckley,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Interpol,
Underground Resistance,
Black Moon,
Schoolly D,
The Fuzztones,
Rapeman,
Howard Jones,
Glenn Branca,
Eden Ahbez,
The Zeros,
The Stooges,
Matthew Bourne,
the Association,
Rhythm & Sound,
Sexual Harrassment,
Basic Channel,
The Knickerbockers,
Roxy Music,
Throbbing Gristle,
Subhumans,
Ornette Coleman,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Deakin,
Alton Ellis,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.