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 Canada and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia show in London.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Gary Puckett & The Union Gap to the dance kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Sarah Menescal. All the underground hits.
All Stetsasonic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Desert Stars 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a ABC record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Black Dice,
Zapp,
MC5,
Pharoah Sanders,
Liliput,
Nirvana,
the Germs,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Cal Tjader,
Dark Day,
T.S.O.L.,
ABBA,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Tremeloes,
Infiniti,
Black Sheep,
Cameo,
Albert Ayler,
Jimmy McGriff,
Sam Rivers,
China Crisis,
Parry Music,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Niagra,
Alison Limerick,
Gang of Four,
R.M.O.,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Crime,
The Electric Prunes,
Gil Scott Heron,
Joey Negro,
The Last Poets,
Sun City Girls,
Skarface,
Sun Ra,
Animal Collective,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The United States of America,
The Trojans,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Cramps,
Ornette Coleman,
Qualms,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Rites of Spring,
The Standells,
Wire,
Vladislav Delay,
These Immortal Souls,
Bobby Sherman,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Curtis Mayfield,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Erykah Badu,
Rapeman,
Buzzcocks,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.