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 Tajikistan and from Houston.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Calgary 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 The Move to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Sonic Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sonny Sharrock record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a John Lydon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Pulsallama,
Stiv Bators,
Scan 7,
Glenn Branca,
The Stooges,
Swell Maps,
Bad Manners,
Boogie Down Productions,
Jerry's Kids,
The Barracudas,
The Leaves,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Lightning Bolt,
Pere Ubu,
Juan Atkins,
Grandmaster Flash,
Anthony Braxton,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Reagan Youth,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Mark Hollis,
The Last Poets,
10cc,
Scratch Acid,
Quantec,
The Fire Engines,
the Soft Cell,
Urselle,
Donny Hathaway,
The Offenders,
the Slits,
Jacob Miller,
KRS-One,
The New Christs,
Yusef Lateef,
Josef K,
Tim Buckley,
Toni Rubio,
Jeru the Damaja,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Sällskapet,
The Durutti Column,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dorothy Ashby,
Hardrive,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Lower 48,
Pantaleimon,
Wally Richardson,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Piero Umiliani,
Ralphi Rosario,
Sparks,
A Certain Ratio,
Hoover,
The Move,
Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis, Warren Ellis.
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.