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 Cyprus and from Hong Kong.
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 1966 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Oneida to the grunge 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 The Velvet Underground. All the underground hits.
All Camouflage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kango’s Stein Massive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Mary Jane Girls,
Godley & Creme,
James Chance & The Contortions,
London Community Gospel Choir,
DJ Sneak,
Dead Boys,
Radiohead,
Ice-T,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Remains,
Kayak,
The Smiths,
Ronnie Foster,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
Delta 5,
Archie Shepp,
Scientists,
Blossom Toes,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Young Marble Giants,
Nick Fraelich,
Dual Sessions,
Crash Course in Science,
Altered Images,
Crispy Ambulance,
8 Eyed Spy,
Japan,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Panda Bear,
The Pretty Things,
10cc,
LL Cool J,
Simply Red,
EPMD,
Albert Ayler,
Royal Trux,
The Searchers,
L. Decosne,
Letta Mbulu,
Yellowson,
Darondo,
Newcleus,
The Fall,
Eric Copeland,
Roy Ayers,
Aaron Thompson,
Sandy B,
Grandmaster Flash,
Man Eating Sloth,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Sound Behaviour,
The Velvet Underground,
Byron Stingily,
Robert Görl,
Bauhaus,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Zeros,
Jacques Brel,
Visage,
Television,
Pagans, Pagans, Pagans, Pagans.
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.