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 Lebanon and from Glasgow.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Houston.
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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Bob Dylan to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Germs. All the underground hits.
All Gian Franco Pienzio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Angry Samoans 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Crash Course in Science,
Angry Samoans,
John Coltrane,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Brass Construction,
Kurtis Blow,
Juan Atkins,
This Heat,
Parry Music,
Public Enemy,
Swell Maps,
Ken Boothe,
Camouflage,
Ultimate Spinach,
La Düsseldorf,
Kas Product,
Aswad,
Eve St. Jones,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
The Sound,
Schoolly D,
DJ Style,
Sight & Sound,
Jeru the Damaja,
Depeche Mode,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Stereo Dub,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Pulsallama,
Byron Stingily,
John Holt,
Glenn Branca,
Hasil Adkins,
The Black Dice,
Vainqueur,
Theoretical Girls,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Bluetip,
Radio Birdman,
Little Man,
The Fortunes,
Cybotron,
Tropical Tobacco,
Technova,
Darondo,
DJ Sneak,
Slick Rick,
Main Source,
Man Parrish,
The Monochrome Set,
Agitation Free,
Peter and Kerry,
The Fugs,
Be Bop Deluxe,
The Grass Roots,
Qualms,
In Retrospect,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Pharoah Sanders,
Blossom Toes,
The Tremeloes, The Tremeloes, The Tremeloes, The Tremeloes.
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.