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 Armenia and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 arpeggiator 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 Saccharine Trust to the funk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Visage. All the underground hits.
All Wasted Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rod Modell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Loose Ends record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
R.M.O.,
Lou Reed,
The J.B.'s,
Fad Gadget,
Bootsy Collins,
Clear Light,
The Fugs,
Nico,
Stereo Dub,
Rhythm & Sound,
Bush Tetras,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Nation of Ulysses,
Curtis Mayfield,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Techniques,
Basic Channel,
Morten Harket,
Maleditus Sound,
Arcadia,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Boz Scaggs,
Subhumans,
Main Source,
Niagra,
Prince Buster,
Byron Stingily,
Thompson Twins,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Eden Ahbez,
Model 500,
Cameo,
Youth Brigade,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Alphaville,
Hashim,
The American Breed,
Underground Resistance,
X-101,
The Golliwogs,
Ten City,
Shuggie Otis,
June of 44,
Matthew Bourne,
Stiv Bators,
In Retrospect,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Sheep,
The Cure,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
K-Klass,
The Dead C,
MDC,
Television Personalities,
Charles Mingus,
The Moleskins,
Colin Newman,
CMW,
Anakelly,
Reagan Youth,
Unwound,
The Tremeloes,
Brothers Johnson,
Barclay James Harvest,
Desert Stars, Desert Stars, Desert Stars, Desert Stars.
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.