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 Chile and from Cairo.
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 1962 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 organ 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 The Raincoats to the grime 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 Mad Mike. All the underground hits.
All Archie Shepp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-101 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a PIL record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba 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?
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Sight & Sound,
Essential Logic,
Jawbox,
Boz Scaggs,
Kenny Larkin,
Yusef Lateef,
Alton Ellis,
This Heat,
the Sonics,
Faraquet,
Siglo XX,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Cal Tjader,
Metal Thangz,
Dawn Penn,
John Foxx,
Johnny Clarke,
the Swans,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Kinks,
Loose Ends,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Fear,
Joensuu 1685,
The Five Americans,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Swell Maps,
Camouflage,
Wally Richardson,
Sixth Finger,
Slick Rick,
KRS-One,
Eden Ahbez,
The Slackers,
Slave,
Matthew Bourne,
Dead Boys,
Von Mondo,
New Age Steppers,
Ultimate Spinach,
Albert Ayler,
Brothers Johnson,
Aaron Thompson,
Minnie Riperton,
The Dead C,
Mission of Burma,
Stockholm Monsters,
Mark Hollis,
Little Man,
Ice-T,
Gang Green,
Tomorrow,
Crash Course in Science,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Clear Light,
The Residents,
Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics, Amazonics.
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.