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 Honduras and from Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1961 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 Michael McDonald 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 James Chance & The Contortions to the punk 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Mark Hollis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Henry Cow 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Smog record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dark Day,
Crispy Ambulance,
Babytalk,
The Residents,
Barry Ungar,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Faraquet,
Sight & Sound,
The Dave Clark Five,
Minutemen,
Kurtis Blow,
Heaven 17,
The Sound,
Malaria!,
Metal Thangz,
Simply Red,
The Young Rascals,
The Knickerbockers,
Camberwell Now,
OOIOO,
Roger Hodgson,
Darondo,
Yazoo,
Desert Stars,
The Cowsills,
Max Romeo,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Pharoah Sanders,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Agitation Free,
Barbara Tucker,
the Fania All-Stars,
The Pretty Things,
Anthony Braxton,
LL Cool J,
Pere Ubu,
Interpol,
Lebanon Hanover,
Todd Rundgren,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Real Kids,
June Days,
Mo-Dettes,
The Modern Lovers,
Man Eating Sloth,
The New Christs,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Gil Scott Heron,
Slave,
the Human League,
Spandau Ballet,
The Kinks,
Brand Nubian,
Scientists,
Sister Nancy,
Bizarre Inc.,
Pussy Galore,
Robert Wyatt,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Slackers,
The Blackbyrds,
Buzzcocks,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat, Deadbeat.
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.