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 Mauritania and from Edmonton.
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 1968 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Scratch Acid to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Surgeon. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Chris Corsano 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quando Quango record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
Aaron Thompson,
Sixth Finger,
Joyce Sims,
Lightning Bolt,
Altered Images,
CMW,
The Tremeloes,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Slits,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Ossler,
the Slits,
Cybotron,
Jesper Dahlback,
Black Bananas,
Rites of Spring,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Metal Thangz,
Gabor Szabo,
Sister Nancy,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kaleidoscope,
Cal Tjader,
Fad Gadget,
Sex Pistols,
Warsaw,
Slick Rick,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Rufus Thomas,
Bobby Byrd,
Swans,
Surgeon,
Animal Collective,
Laurel Aitken,
Suburban Knight,
Eddi Front,
Robert Görl,
Alton Ellis,
The Five Americans,
Unwound,
Jawbox,
Neil Young,
New Order,
Glambeats Corp.,
Country Teasers,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Pole,
Magma,
Deakin,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Clear Light,
Lucky Dragons,
Oneida,
Roxette,
Camouflage,
Excepter,
Kool Moe Dee,
Slave,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science, Crash Course in Science.
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.