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 Germany and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1976 at the first Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Be Bop Deluxe to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Kayak. All the underground hits.
All Hoover tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gong record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dark Day record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
A Certain Ratio,
Radiopuhelimet,
Drive Like Jehu,
Johnny Clarke,
The Happenings,
Inner City,
Arthur Verocai,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Jeff Lynne,
Gil Scott Heron,
Alice Coltrane,
Dead Boys,
The Electric Prunes,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Durutti Column,
Delon & Dalcan,
The Walker Brothers,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Robert Görl,
Bob Dylan,
Technova,
Todd Rundgren,
Funky Four + One,
Bronski Beat,
Bang On A Can,
Sam Rivers,
Soul II Soul,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Jandek,
B.T. Express,
The Real Kids,
John Holt,
Marmalade,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Lalann,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
David Axelrod,
The Offenders,
X-101,
Barclay James Harvest,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Dead C,
Simply Red,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Sonics,
Black Pus,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Michelle Simonal,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Mr. Review,
Archie Shepp,
The Smiths,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Gories,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Smoke,
Isaac Hayes,
Hasil Adkins,
Smog,
Oneida, Oneida, Oneida, Oneida.
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.