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 Dominica and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1962 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 marimba 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 Visage to the grunge 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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All The Chocolate Watch Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every David McCallum 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 a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Erasure record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Make Up,
Todd Terry,
Main Source,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Negative Approach,
Zapp,
Thompson Twins,
Byron Stingily,
The Dead C,
Alison Limerick,
PIL,
Rhythm & Sound,
T. Rex,
Rod Modell,
Popol Vuh,
Au Pairs,
Supertramp,
The Fortunes,
Basic Channel,
Crispian St. Peters,
Minny Pops,
Matthew Bourne,
Outsiders,
Mandrill,
Minutemen,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Fear,
Con Funk Shun,
The Raincoats,
Tears for Fears,
Kaleidoscope,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Scan 7,
The Cure,
The Walker Brothers,
Henry Cow,
The Mojo Men,
Black Pus,
Sexual Harrassment,
La Düsseldorf,
Pantaleimon,
The Selecter,
Gabor Szabo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Zeros,
Crooked Eye,
The Standells,
The Saints,
Rosa Yemen,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Birthday Party,
One Last Wish,
Frankie Knuckles,
Kurtis Blow,
Index,
The Flesh Eaters,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
The Toasters,
Amazonics,
Tropical Tobacco,
the Swans,
Niagra, Niagra, Niagra, Niagra.
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.