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 Saudi Arabia and from Milan.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Kaleidoscope to the disco 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 Deepchord. All the underground hits.
All Crash Course in Science tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Motions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Scan 7 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron 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?
Ituana,
The Doors,
Nils Olav,
The Happenings,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Shuggie Otis,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Arab on Radar,
Ponytail,
Todd Rundgren,
Jawbox,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
U.S. Maple,
Inner City,
K-Klass,
The Music Machine,
New York Dolls,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
the Slits,
the Germs,
Faraquet,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Danielle Patucci,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Sound Behaviour,
Jacques Brel,
Soul II Soul,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
These Immortal Souls,
This Heat,
Iggy Pop,
Man Parrish,
Bobby Byrd,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Searchers,
Soft Cell,
a-ha,
Minor Threat,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Neon Judgement,
Technova,
Byron Stingily,
Severed Heads,
Vainqueur,
Kas Product,
Youth Brigade,
Minny Pops,
Soft Machine,
Yaz,
Big Daddy Kane,
Drexciya,
the Fania All-Stars,
UT,
The Velvet Underground,
Morten Harket,
Lightning Bolt,
Liliput, Liliput, Liliput, Liliput.
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.