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 San Marino and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 chamberlin 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 Rotary Connection to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Letta Mbulu. All the underground hits.
All Bobby Womack tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hot Snakes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Nik Kershaw,
Bizarre Inc.,
Nas,
Little Man,
Black Moon,
In Retrospect,
Piero Umiliani,
The Litter,
The Shadows of Knight,
Amon Düül II,
Bad Manners,
Johnny Osbourne,
Hardrive,
Eli Mardock,
Negative Approach,
Tears for Fears,
the Human League,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Chris Corsano,
Icehouse,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Altered Images,
Model 500,
Juan Atkins,
Laurel Aitken,
Cheater Slicks,
The Leaves,
Vainqueur,
E-Dancer,
Pet Shop Boys,
Groovy Waters,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Essential Logic,
JFA,
Saccharine Trust,
Easy Going,
Hoover,
Aswad,
Popol Vuh,
Warsaw,
John Foxx,
Eve St. Jones,
OOIOO,
Half Japanese,
The Smiths,
Marine Girls,
Ten City,
Radiopuhelimet,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Durutti Column,
The Blues Magoos,
Mad Mike,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Joy Division,
Lower 48,
Section 25,
Television Personalities,
Prince Buster,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Camberwell Now,
Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet, Faraquet.
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.