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 Canada and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Robert Görl to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Angels of Light & Akron/Family tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Angels of Light 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Y Pants,
Pantytec,
Ituana,
Porter Ricks,
The Gun Club,
Kaleidoscope,
Terry Callier,
Echospace,
Nation of Ulysses,
Wire,
the Swans,
Brick,
In Retrospect,
Barry Ungar,
Scan 7,
Danielle Patucci,
Funkadelic,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Average White Band,
Mo-Dettes,
Sugar Minott,
Bauhaus,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bush Tetras,
Stiv Bators,
The Evens,
The Divine Comedy,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Susan Cadogan,
Sonny Sharrock,
Schoolly D,
The Saints,
Soft Cell,
Public Enemy,
Liliput,
the Soft Cell,
Lalann,
The Pretty Things,
Marvin Gaye,
Harmonia,
Gabor Szabo,
Todd Rundgren,
Bob Dylan,
Soulsonic Force,
The Blues Magoos,
Moebius,
Fatback Band,
Warren Ellis,
Theoretical Girls,
Q and Not U,
Aaron Thompson,
Skarface,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sun Ra,
Absolute Body Control,
The Associates,
48th St. Collective,
Los Fastidios,
The Fire Engines,
Joy Division,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.