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 Barbados and from Madrid.
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 1960 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 organ 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 The Red Krayola to the crunk 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 Dawn Penn. All the underground hits.
All Aaron Thompson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Electric Prunes 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sixth Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Invisible,
The Standells,
Yellowson,
The Music Machine,
Reuben Wilson,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Mantronix,
The Moleskins,
Dave Gahan,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Blancmange,
Chris & Cosey,
Agent Orange,
Television Personalities,
Slick Rick,
Donald Byrd,
Alice Coltrane,
Lalo Schifrin,
Quantec,
Index,
Essential Logic,
Davy DMX,
The Shadows of Knight,
Minnie Riperton,
Au Pairs,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Kayak,
Crispian St. Peters,
Camouflage,
Boogie Down Productions,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Wolf Eyes,
LL Cool J,
Section 25,
Arab on Radar,
Tomorrow,
Magma,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bobby Sherman,
The Stooges,
Susan Cadogan,
Smog,
The Grass Roots,
New York Dolls,
Massinfluence,
Blossom Toes,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Bill Near,
Pere Ubu,
Radiopuhelimet,
Quadrant,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Fatback Band,
Stereo Dub,
Marcia Griffiths,
Nico,
Ten City,
Nation of Ulysses,
Maleditus Sound,
Depeche Mode,
Q65,
Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry.
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.