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 Jordan and from Lille.
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 1967 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the linndrum 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 Jandek to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Rapeman. All the underground hits.
All U.S. Maple tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Isaac Hayes 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 clarinet and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sight & Sound record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
the Bar-Kays,
Robert Wyatt,
Black Pus,
Glambeats Corp.,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Last Poets,
AZ,
The Slackers,
Isaac Hayes,
Simply Red,
Quando Quango,
Erykah Badu,
Flipper,
Alison Limerick,
The Buckinghams,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
The Saints,
Buzzcocks,
Rufus Thomas,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Rekid,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Mars,
Make Up,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Dead Boys,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Mummies,
Can,
Desert Stars,
Unrelated Segments,
Crispy Ambulance,
Agent Orange,
Archie Shepp,
ABC,
Avey Tare,
Lightning Bolt,
The Residents,
The Index,
Babytalk,
EPMD,
Magma,
Terry Callier,
Junior Murvin,
the Association,
Johnny Osbourne,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Vogues,
Sugar Minott,
The Detroit Cobras,
Technova,
Yazoo,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Skaos,
John Holt,
Reuben Wilson,
OOIOO,
Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy, Public Enemy.
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.