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 Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Cure to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Eric Dolphy. All the underground hits.
All Hoover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tom Boy 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Aaron Thompson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harmonia,
Fela Kuti,
Adolescents,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
the Soft Cell,
Man Eating Sloth,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ituana,
The Cramps,
David McCallum,
Faust,
The Last Poets,
Make Up,
Nico,
Marc Almond,
Pet Shop Boys,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Association,
Deepchord,
John Foxx,
Qualms,
Ponytail,
Amazonics,
Fatback Band,
Motorama,
Aural Exciters,
Second Layer,
Henry Cow,
Barry Ungar,
Porter Ricks,
Andrew Hill,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Magazine,
Outsiders,
The Fugs,
Joensuu 1685,
The Birthday Party,
Mark Hollis,
X-Ray Spex,
The Seeds,
Sandy B,
The Electric Prunes,
Jeru the Damaja,
John Coltrane,
Groovy Waters,
Joyce Sims,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Skatalites,
Guru Guru,
The Buckinghams,
Cheater Slicks,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Tropical Tobacco,
Roxette,
The Dead C,
Metal Thangz,
The Barracudas,
OOIOO,
PIL,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Yazoo, Yazoo, Yazoo, Yazoo.
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.