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 Ireland and from Columbus.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Johannesburg.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Alphaville to the rap 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 Lou Christie. All the underground hits.
All Mars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Blossom Toes record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Crime record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Saints,
The Slits,
LL Cool J,
Brick,
the Normal,
Glambeats Corp.,
Bauhaus,
Reagan Youth,
Roxette,
Wasted Youth,
UT,
Sexual Harrassment,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Warren Ellis,
Todd Terry,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Unwound,
Q and Not U,
Fugazi,
Pagans,
Adolescents,
Dark Day,
Banda Bassotti,
Stetsasonic,
The Angels of Light,
K-Klass,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Anakelly,
Patti Smith,
Connie Case,
Lou Christie,
Aswad,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
In Retrospect,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Anthony Braxton,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Zero Boys,
New Age Steppers,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Oneida,
Crooked Eye,
The Sound,
David McCallum,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
the Slits,
Rosa Yemen,
The Seeds,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Cramps,
Joy Division,
Jandek,
The Tremeloes,
Avey Tare,
Nation of Ulysses,
Eve St. Jones,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Franke,
One Last Wish,
Subhumans,
Duran Duran,
Bill Wells,
ABBA,
the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell, the Soft Cell.
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.