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 Turkmenistan and from Lyon.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Siglo XX to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Peanut Butter Conspiracy. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eyeless In Gaza record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 808 and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Mojo Men,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
This Heat,
Fluxion,
Deadbeat,
the Human League,
Dead Boys,
Harry Pussy,
Magazine,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Harpers Bizarre,
Interpol,
Aural Exciters,
Technova,
Easy Going,
Yusef Lateef,
Michelle Simonal,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Piero Umiliani,
Alice Coltrane,
FM Einheit,
The Fugs,
Wally Richardson,
Gabor Szabo,
The Zeros,
Todd Rundgren,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Barry Ungar,
Rosa Yemen,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Procol Harum,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Thompson Twins,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Buzzcocks,
Josef K,
Brothers Johnson,
Groovy Waters,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Eve St. Jones,
Sound Behaviour,
L. Decosne,
Byron Stingily,
Max Romeo,
Hoover,
Sun City Girls,
Tommy Roe,
Black Bananas,
ABBA,
Delon & Dalcan,
Godley & Creme,
Tropical Tobacco,
Whodini,
Sarah Menescal,
Ice-T,
Yazoo,
Massinfluence,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Smoke,
David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.
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.