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 Cameroon and from Delhi.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Angels of Light & Akron/Family to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 A Flock of Seagulls. All the underground hits.
All Gerry Rafferty tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Model 500 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultra Naté record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flash Fearless,
The Gap Band,
Zero Boys,
8 Eyed Spy,
Lucky Dragons,
The Fire Engines,
Patti Smith,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The Buckinghams,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Moleskins,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
E-Dancer,
Jandek,
Sandy B,
R.M.O.,
The Searchers,
Yusef Lateef,
The Skatalites,
Al Stewart,
Soft Cell,
The J.B.'s,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Sugar Minott,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Knickerbockers,
Frankie Knuckles,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Gong,
Nation of Ulysses,
Theoretical Girls,
Ornette Coleman,
Model 500,
Nico,
48th St. Collective,
Mo-Dettes,
Lightning Bolt,
Cameo,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Electric Prunes,
Lou Reed,
Nik Kershaw,
The Golliwogs,
David Bowie,
Mars,
Cal Tjader,
Underground Resistance,
Barrington Levy,
Barry Ungar,
Radiohead,
Shuggie Otis,
Mission of Burma,
Deadbeat,
Terry Callier,
The Last Poets,
CMW,
X-Ray Spex,
Hasil Adkins,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls, Marine Girls.
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.