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 Pakistan and from New York.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Fatback Band to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 The Count Five. All the underground hits.
All David Bowie tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Janne Schatter record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 chamberlin and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kango’s Stein Massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Spoonie Gee,
The American Breed,
Bill Near,
Y Pants,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
In Retrospect,
Au Pairs,
FM Einheit,
Terry Callier,
Intrusion,
Quadrant,
Marvin Gaye,
Crash Course in Science,
Nils Olav,
Rapeman,
Amazonics,
Chris Corsano,
Con Funk Shun,
The Slits,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
The Mummies,
Pharoah Sanders,
Suicide,
Lou Christie,
Deepchord,
Stockholm Monsters,
Can,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Shoche,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Wolf Eyes,
The Move,
Electric Prunes,
Swell Maps,
The Zeros,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Fugazi,
Oneida,
A Certain Ratio,
Theoretical Girls,
Aloha Tigers,
Interpol,
Slave,
Harpers Bizarre,
Silicon Teens,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Japan,
Gong,
Heaven 17,
Eden Ahbez,
The Cramps,
Sight & Sound,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Ornette Coleman,
Jeru the Damaja,
John Cale,
Unrelated Segments,
Cluster,
The Toasters,
Ultravox,
Sun Ra,
Sun Ra Arkestra, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sun Ra Arkestra.
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.