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 San Marino and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 oboe 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 Joensuu 1685 to the electroclash 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 Pet Shop Boys. All the underground hits.
All Magma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fear 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Frankie Knuckles record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Procol Harum,
The Trojans,
The Dave Clark Five,
Sound Behaviour,
The Last Poets,
The Move,
Gang of Four,
X-101,
Motorama,
Rufus Thomas,
Donald Byrd,
Flamin' Groovies,
Josef K,
Public Image Ltd.,
Davy DMX,
Glambeats Corp.,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Sonics,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Dead C,
The Mummies,
The Moleskins,
The Invisible,
Duran Duran,
Lebanon Hanover,
Peter & Gordon,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Royal Trux,
Nas,
Rites of Spring,
Curtis Mayfield,
Q65,
Jeff Mills,
Cluster,
Vainqueur,
Fear,
Joensuu 1685,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Derrick May,
Crime,
Buzzcocks,
Sugar Minott,
Wire,
Subhumans,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Sound,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Technova,
Flash Fearless,
Bob Dylan,
Country Teasers,
Essential Logic,
Loose Ends,
Von Mondo,
Roger Hodgson,
Organ,
Ice-T,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis.
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.