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 Botswana and from Seoul.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the sitar 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 Bizarre Inc. to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Men They Couldn't Hang. All the underground hits.
All Johnny Osbourne tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vainqueur record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül,
Altered Images,
F. McDonald,
Donald Byrd,
Jerry Gold Smith,
The Birthday Party,
Swans,
Scott Walker,
Johnny Osbourne,
Black Flag,
Public Enemy,
The Walker Brothers,
Matthew Bourne,
The Real Kids,
Ossler,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Sound Behaviour,
Gong,
Skarface,
Colin Newman,
Crash Course in Science,
Second Layer,
Janne Schatter,
Faust,
EPMD,
MC5,
Junior Murvin,
Masters at Work,
The Zeros,
Chris Corsano,
Josef K,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Ornette Coleman,
Vladislav Delay,
Curtis Mayfield,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Mantronix,
The Offenders,
The Fire Engines,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Stockholm Monsters,
R.M.O.,
June of 44,
Brothers Johnson,
Terry Callier,
Sugar Minott,
The J.B.'s,
Sun Ra,
Stetsasonic,
Grandmaster Flash,
June Days,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Dawn Penn,
the Human League,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Modern Lovers,
Delta 5,
Delon & Dalcan,
T. Rex,
Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks, Circle Jerks.
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.