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 Bahrain and from Seoul.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1975 at the first Throbbing Gristle practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Slackers to the rock 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 Interpol. All the underground hits.
All MC5 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Metal Thangz record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Quadrant record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shoche,
Bobby Sherman,
Ronnie Foster,
The Fuzztones,
The Offenders,
Josef K,
Man Eating Sloth,
Porter Ricks,
Joy Division,
Warren Ellis,
Cybotron,
Man Parrish,
Urselle,
Vainqueur,
Sam Rivers,
Swans,
Gabor Szabo,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sarah Menescal,
Lebanon Hanover,
Robert Wyatt,
Ohio Players,
Funky Four + One,
Big Daddy Kane,
Pierre Henry,
Ponytail,
Lou Christie,
The Real Kids,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Jacques Brel,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Alarm Clocks,
Deadbeat,
Rod Modell,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Red Krayola,
The Martian,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Dirtbombs,
Subhumans,
The Knickerbockers,
June Days,
H. Thieme,
New York Dolls,
Jerry's Kids,
Scientists,
In Retrospect,
Ken Boothe,
Gang Green,
the Human League,
Crime,
Joe Smooth,
Gregory Isaacs,
Lakeside,
Bootsy Collins,
Letta Mbulu,
Ornette Coleman,
Moby Grape,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Skarface,
Popol Vuh,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T.
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.