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 Belarus and from Beijing.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Banda Bassotti to the electroclash 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 The Dirtbombs. All the underground hits.
All Livin' Joy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Index record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Tres Demented,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Boredoms,
Donald Byrd,
Scott Walker,
The Busters,
Pylon,
Aaron Thompson,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Cecil Taylor,
Sound Behaviour,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Bronski Beat,
Fela Kuti,
Cymande,
Peter & Gordon,
Barry Ungar,
Wasted Youth,
Gang Green,
New Age Steppers,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Joyce Sims,
Rufus Thomas,
MC5,
Kerrie Biddell,
EPMD,
Deakin,
Rites of Spring,
The Fall,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Vainqueur,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Spoonie Gee,
Eddi Front,
Saccharine Trust,
Von Mondo,
Echospace,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Faraquet,
The Trojans,
Black Pus,
Swell Maps,
Reagan Youth,
Sam Rivers,
Stockholm Monsters,
Alice Coltrane,
Camberwell Now,
Angry Samoans,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Connie Case,
Lebanon Hanover,
Intrusion,
Young Marble Giants,
Arthur Verocai,
Livin' Joy,
Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu.
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.