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 Afghanistan and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 guitar 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 Girls At Our Best! to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Swans. All the underground hits.
All the Soft Cell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Essential Logic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Swell Maps,
Tomorrow,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
The Smoke,
Pere Ubu,
CMW,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sam Rivers,
Sound Behaviour,
Scrapy,
David Bowie,
John Cale,
Lindisfarne,
The Gap Band,
Shuggie Otis,
The Birthday Party,
Michelle Simonal,
Ken Boothe,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Tremeloes,
Toni Rubio,
ABC,
Audionom,
Crash Course in Science,
Blancmange,
Hoover,
The Mojo Men,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Alarm Clocks,
Deepchord,
The Gories,
Steve Hackett,
The Fuzztones,
Mad Mike,
K-Klass,
PIL,
New Age Steppers,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Erasure,
Moss Icon,
Silicon Teens,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Slackers,
Eric B and Rakim,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Flesh Eaters,
Circle Jerks,
Babytalk,
Max Romeo,
Anthony Braxton,
DJ Sneak,
Ponytail,
Altered Images,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Black Dice,
Magma,
The Kinks,
Massinfluence,
Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four, Gang of Four.
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.