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 Liberia and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 Donald Fagen 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 Jesus and Mary Chain to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Crooked Eye. All the underground hits.
All The Smiths tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T.S.O.L. record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Angels of Light & Akron/Family record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Todd Terry,
Camouflage,
Faraquet,
James White and The Blacks,
Black Sheep,
In Retrospect,
Babytalk,
Jimmy McGriff,
Fugazi,
Clear Light,
The Flesh Eaters,
Scientists,
Tears for Fears,
Ten City,
Gang Starr,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Mad Mike,
Junior Murvin,
Crooked Eye,
Excepter,
Aural Exciters,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Monochrome Set,
Ponytail,
Bluetip,
Tommy Roe,
Swans,
The Seeds,
Marine Girls,
Quantec,
Bill Wells,
The Music Machine,
X-Ray Spex,
The Young Rascals,
the Normal,
Nils Olav,
the Slits,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Gil Scott Heron,
Skaos,
the Germs,
Tubeway Army,
R.M.O.,
Gastr Del Sol,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Cluster,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Terry Callier,
Bobby Sherman,
The New Christs,
Minutemen,
The Last Poets,
Wasted Youth,
The United States of America,
Grauzone,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Aloha Tigers,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Cure,
The Dave Clark Five,
Minor Threat, Minor Threat, Minor Threat, Minor Threat.
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.