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 Suriname and from Stockholm.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Seoul.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the linndrum 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 H. Thieme to the grime kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Crime. All the underground hits.
All X-102 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Evens record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 synthesizer and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vainqueur record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slackers,
Blancmange,
The Alarm Clocks,
Quadrant,
Adolescents,
Panda Bear,
Amon Düül,
Joyce Sims,
Kurtis Blow,
Peter and Kerry,
Nation of Ulysses,
T. Rex,
Jacob Miller,
Sam Rivers,
John Coltrane,
Silicon Teens,
Oblivians,
Youth Brigade,
Theoretical Girls,
Yellowson,
The Seeds,
Warren Ellis,
The Birthday Party,
David McCallum,
ABC,
Black Flag,
Kevin Saunderson,
Public Image Ltd.,
Organ,
The Raincoats,
The Happenings,
Porter Ricks,
Cluster,
cv313,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
This Heat,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Niagra,
Sexual Harrassment,
Henry Cow,
Scratch Acid,
Essential Logic,
Jacques Brel,
X-101,
Suburban Knight,
Interpol,
Ultimate Spinach,
Von Mondo,
Grauzone,
Bang On A Can,
Jeff Lynne,
DJ Style,
PIL,
Joensuu 1685,
Scrapy,
John Holt,
Franke,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Avey Tare,
Max Romeo,
The Cramps,
The Smoke,
Monks, Monks, Monks, Monks.
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.