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 Kosovo and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 theremin 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 Tremeloes to the disco kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Grass Roots. All the underground hits.
All The Real Kids tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-Ray Spex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 organ 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 oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Shuggie Otis,
Gang Gang Dance,
Marine Girls,
The Sound,
David Bowie,
Technova,
The Move,
Subhumans,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Duran Duran,
Barry Ungar,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Scan 7,
Marmalade,
Man Parrish,
Quando Quango,
Bad Manners,
Flash Fearless,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Bobby Byrd,
Deakin,
Yazoo,
Tropical Tobacco,
KRS-One,
Warren Ellis,
Grandmaster Flash,
Avey Tare,
Pet Shop Boys,
Monks,
The Blues Magoos,
Moby Grape,
Altered Images,
Banda Bassotti,
Gabor Szabo,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Wake,
JFA,
Kaleidoscope,
Juan Atkins,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Red Krayola,
Maleditus Sound,
Yusef Lateef,
Sight & Sound,
Crooked Eye,
Gang of Four,
The Electric Prunes,
Amazonics,
Main Source,
Amon Düül,
Half Japanese,
The Victims,
Fatback Band,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Nas,
Scratch Acid,
Skaos,
Reuben Wilson,
Adolescents,
Fear,
Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp, Archie Shepp.
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.