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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Beau Brummels to the crunk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Marine Girls. All the underground hits.
All Lyres tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Echo & the Bunnymen 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Fania All-Stars,
Pagans,
The Skatalites,
Kayak,
Marshall Jefferson,
Frankie Knuckles,
Young Marble Giants,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Index,
Skaos,
The United States of America,
Grey Daturas,
Ice-T,
Fela Kuti,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Nico,
Talk Talk,
E-Dancer,
Pet Shop Boys,
Sight & Sound,
Grauzone,
Boz Scaggs,
Visage,
The Sound,
The Evens,
The Detroit Cobras,
Harpers Bizarre,
Underground Resistance,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Real Kids,
Gabor Szabo,
Ponytail,
Althea and Donna,
Ludus,
The Motions,
Man Eating Sloth,
Albert Ayler,
Kevin Saunderson,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Derrick Morgan,
The Five Americans,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Skarface,
Soulsonic Force,
The Gap Band,
John Lydon,
James White and The Blacks,
Big Daddy Kane,
The Walker Brothers,
Sparks,
The Doors,
Black Sheep,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Crispy Ambulance,
the Sonics,
Livin' Joy,
Chris & Cosey,
Thompson Twins,
The Fall,
ABC,
The Durutti Column,
Bob Dylan,
Television,
Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead, Radiohead.
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.