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 Djibouti and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 guitar 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 The Move to the crunk 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 Lee Hazlewood. All the underground hits.
All Pantaleimon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Can record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Halsall,
The Star Department,
Joyce Sims,
Fat Boys,
Main Source,
Anthony Braxton,
X-Ray Spex,
Simply Red,
Matthew Bourne,
Guru Guru,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sun City Girls,
The Smiths,
Camouflage,
Althea and Donna,
John Holt,
Fela Kuti,
Todd Terry,
Neil Young,
The Fugs,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Last Poets,
Howard Jones,
Underground Resistance,
Franke,
Loose Ends,
Nas,
Harry Pussy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Byron Stingily,
Derrick Morgan,
Lou Christie,
Warsaw,
Buzzcocks,
The Sound,
Ultra Naté,
Soul Sonic Force,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Derrick May,
Archie Shepp,
New York Dolls,
Whodini,
The Neon Judgement,
Rotary Connection,
Johnny Osbourne,
Big Daddy Kane,
China Crisis,
Unrelated Segments,
The Real Kids,
Inner City,
Lyres,
the Human League,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Dave Clark Five,
Slick Rick,
The Gap Band,
T. Rex,
Gregory Isaacs,
World's Most,
Gang of Four,
Eden Ahbez,
E-Dancer, E-Dancer, E-Dancer, E-Dancer.
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.