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 Korea North and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1961 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 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 The J.B.'s to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Golliwogs. All the underground hits.
All Boz Scaggs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siglo XX 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Soft Cell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Happenings,
Los Fastidios,
The Velvet Underground,
Dawn Penn,
Fatback Band,
Depeche Mode,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Agitation Free,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Roy Ayers,
Can,
The Associates,
Cymande,
Sarah Menescal,
Absolute Body Control,
John Coltrane,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ice-T,
T.S.O.L.,
Kas Product,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The American Breed,
Little Man,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Yellowson,
The Detroit Cobras,
Pharoah Sanders,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Nils Olav,
The Slackers,
Nick Fraelich,
B.T. Express,
Man Eating Sloth,
Charles Mingus,
John Foxx,
Rekid,
Franke,
Oblivians,
Magazine,
Ten City,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Spandau Ballet,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Traffic Nightmare,
Matthew Bourne,
Robert Wyatt,
Lakeside,
Fat Boys,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Gastr Del Sol,
Swell Maps,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Gladiators,
Infiniti,
Cluster,
Wings,
Quadrant,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Man Parrish,
Chris & Cosey,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Howard Jones, Howard Jones, Howard Jones, Howard Jones.
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.