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 Singapore and from Philadelphia.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Man Eating Sloth to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Lindisfarne. All the underground hits.
All Louis and Bebe Barron tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lalann record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox 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?
Ice-T,
Qualms,
Girls At Our Best!,
Black Flag,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Ronnie Foster,
The Kinks,
Ultra Naté,
Rosa Yemen,
Kaleidoscope,
Newcleus,
Traffic Nightmare,
John Coltrane,
Kurtis Blow,
Letta Mbulu,
Arcadia,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Sonics,
The Pretty Things,
U.S. Maple,
The Evens,
Oneida,
Johnny Osbourne,
Darondo,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
10cc,
Wire,
Audionom,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
David McCallum,
Amazonics,
Bauhaus,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Pulsallama,
Alton Ellis,
Amon Düül II,
UT,
Gang of Four,
Eddi Front,
Dorothy Ashby,
Stockholm Monsters,
H. Thieme,
Funkadelic,
Bluetip,
Simply Red,
The Slits,
Bang On A Can,
The Music Machine,
Wasted Youth,
KRS-One,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Albert Ayler,
Schoolly D,
Crooked Eye,
Vladislav Delay,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Camberwell Now,
Michelle Simonal,
Niagra,
Big Daddy Kane,
Robert Görl,
Nas, Nas, Nas, Nas.
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.