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 Nauru and from Madrid.
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 1968 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 clarinet 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 Arab on Radar to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Cecil Taylor. All the underground hits.
All The Durutti Column tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Steve Hackett record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bootsy Collins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sonic Youth,
Blake Baxter,
The Last Poets,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Can,
Vladislav Delay,
Fear,
Model 500,
Graham Central Station,
Intrusion,
Aloha Tigers,
Erykah Badu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Marvin Gaye,
David Axelrod,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Suicide,
ABC,
Theoretical Girls,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Joe Smooth,
Motorama,
Reagan Youth,
Rites of Spring,
8 Eyed Spy,
the Slits,
Guru Guru,
Dorothy Ashby,
Slave,
CMW,
Rekid,
The Cure,
the Germs,
New Age Steppers,
Sarah Menescal,
Bobby Sherman,
Lyres,
Minnie Riperton,
Warren Ellis,
The Invisible,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Liliput,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
David McCallum,
Tropical Tobacco,
Maurizio,
Massinfluence,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Scratch Acid,
Josef K,
Skarface,
Junior Murvin,
Wire,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Fortunes,
Boz Scaggs,
Stetsasonic,
The Shadows of Knight,
Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash.
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.