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 Eritrea and from Shanghai.
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 1965 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 2001 at the first Tiga practice in a loft in Montreal.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Sonny Sharrock to the jazz 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 Judy Mowatt. All the underground hits.
All Jeff Mills tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lonnie Liston Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sparks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bluetip,
John Lydon,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Iggy Pop,
Drexciya,
Hoover,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Scrapy,
Young Marble Giants,
Schoolly D,
Dead Boys,
Jawbox,
Crime,
Livin' Joy,
Tommy Roe,
Bobby Womack,
Bang On A Can,
Heaven 17,
Eric B and Rakim,
Reagan Youth,
Black Pus,
Juan Atkins,
Erasure,
The Selecter,
Infiniti,
Marvin Gaye,
Harmonia,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Cowsills,
The Moody Blues,
the Human League,
Sparks,
Gang Green,
Agent Orange,
The Victims,
The Trojans,
Kevin Saunderson,
the Normal,
PIL,
The Monochrome Set,
Stetsasonic,
The Barracudas,
Mars,
The Cure,
Tears for Fears,
Severed Heads,
Ralphi Rosario,
These Immortal Souls,
Fat Boys,
Delta 5,
The Star Department,
Stiv Bators,
Godley & Creme,
Kenny Larkin,
JFA,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
David Axelrod,
Nik Kershaw,
Theoretical Girls,
In Retrospect,
Pere Ubu,
Technova,
Scan 7,
Roxy Music, Roxy Music, Roxy Music, Roxy Music.
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.