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 Morocco and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1984.
I was there at the first Arcadia 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 1963 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Portland.
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 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Crash Course in Science to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Dave Gahan. All the underground hits.
All James Chance & The Contortions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Smoke record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
Anthony Braxton,
Oblivians,
The Cowsills,
Y Pants,
Sexual Harrassment,
Gil Scott Heron,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Black Sheep,
Animal Collective,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Sun City Girls,
cv313,
Pole,
Girls At Our Best!,
Fad Gadget,
The Searchers,
Gastr Del Sol,
Anakelly,
F. McDonald,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Smoke,
Stiv Bators,
Flipper,
Soft Machine,
Eric B and Rakim,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Monochrome Set,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Pantaleimon,
Marvin Gaye,
China Crisis,
June of 44,
The Smiths,
Deepchord,
Oneida,
Stockholm Monsters,
Aswad,
Excepter,
Eve St. Jones,
The Knickerbockers,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
DNA,
Glenn Branca,
Piero Umiliani,
The Moleskins,
The Last Poets,
Panda Bear,
Mission of Burma,
The Busters,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
La Düsseldorf,
X-101,
Theoretical Girls,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
the Normal,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Albert Ayler,
Laurel Aitken,
The Music Machine,
Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub, Stereo Dub.
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.