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 Tunisia 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 1969 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Theoretical Girls to the techno 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 Underground Resistance. All the underground hits.
All B.T. Express tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arthur Verocai record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bluetip,
The Happenings,
48th St. Collective,
Joy Division,
The Martian,
Gang Starr,
The Blackbyrds,
Bootsy Collins,
Basic Channel,
Roxy Music,
Dorothy Ashby,
Tim Buckley,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Doobie Brothers,
Easy Going,
Black Moon,
Anakelly,
Gerry Rafferty,
Talk Talk,
the Human League,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Bang On A Can,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
PIL,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Kevin Saunderson,
Fear,
Sight & Sound,
Thee Headcoats,
The Kinks,
Black Sheep,
Davy DMX,
Black Bananas,
Y Pants,
Scion,
Half Japanese,
Ludus,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Oneida,
The Count Five,
Ultimate Spinach,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Sixth Finger,
The Divine Comedy,
the Swans,
Gil Scott Heron,
Visage,
Sarah Menescal,
Delta 5,
Eurythmics,
Lee Hazlewood,
AZ,
The Durutti Column,
Popol Vuh,
Trumans Water,
Nils Olav,
Rekid,
Jeru the Damaja,
Depeche Mode,
Erykah Badu,
T.S.O.L.,
The Doors,
La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf, La Düsseldorf.
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.