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 Japan and from Madrid.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 808 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 T. Rex to the grunge kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks. All the underground hits.
All Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Joyce Sims record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joyce Sims,
The Five Americans,
David Axelrod,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Jacob Miller,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gang Green,
Black Pus,
The Modern Lovers,
This Heat,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Public Image Ltd.,
Scott Walker,
Leonard Cohen,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Eli Mardock,
Theoretical Girls,
Suburban Knight,
Joensuu 1685,
DJ Sneak,
Panda Bear,
The Gun Club,
Lyres,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Byron Stingily,
The Flesh Eaters,
Hardrive,
Kenny Larkin,
Connie Case,
Masters at Work,
Ice-T,
Lebanon Hanover,
Soul II Soul,
ABBA,
the Fania All-Stars,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Main Source,
Erasure,
X-Ray Spex,
The Busters,
Aaron Thompson,
Radiohead,
The J.B.'s,
Girls At Our Best!,
Vladislav Delay,
Amon Düül II,
Suicide,
The Gladiators,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Johnny Clarke,
Minny Pops,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Kerrie Biddell,
Harry Pussy,
Mission of Burma,
Albert Ayler,
Angry Samoans,
Arcadia,
Pulsallama,
Technova,
The Gap Band,
Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill, Andrew Hill.
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.