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 Tajikistan and from Taipei.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Sparks to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Mandrill. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every K-Klass 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marine Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
Liliput,
Ohio Players,
Radio Birdman,
The Birthday Party,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Cymande,
Soft Machine,
Tommy Roe,
Scott Walker,
Pantaleimon,
Todd Rundgren,
Can,
Swans,
OOIOO,
Stetsasonic,
Nik Kershaw,
Zero Boys,
Lindisfarne,
Symarip,
New York Dolls,
The Techniques,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Grandmaster Flash,
Black Bananas,
Rekid,
Scrapy,
Nils Olav,
Ludus,
Scientists,
Marcia Griffiths,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
New Order,
Motorama,
B.T. Express,
10cc,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Moody Blues,
Kas Product,
Jeff Mills,
Animal Collective,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Altered Images,
K-Klass,
Bobby Sherman,
The Angels of Light,
The Mojo Men,
Cal Tjader,
Index,
Reuben Wilson,
Interpol,
Curtis Mayfield,
Crime,
Q and Not U,
Depeche Mode,
Intrusion,
The Standells,
Outsiders,
Josef K,
The Velvet Underground,
Silicon Teens,
Wally Richardson,
Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell, Rod Modell.
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.