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 Tanzania and from Seoul.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
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 1965 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 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 Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu to the grunge kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 OOIOO. All the underground hits.
All the Germs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Josef K record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Slits,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
OOIOO,
Faraquet,
Unwound,
Scratch Acid,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Ken Boothe,
Eric Dolphy,
Sarah Menescal,
The Standells,
Janne Schatter,
Quantec,
Isaac Hayes,
Black Pus,
MDC,
Adolescents,
Eddi Front,
the Swans,
Icehouse,
Marc Almond,
Minutemen,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Underground Resistance,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Fortunes,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Procol Harum,
Organ,
Symarip,
Roy Ayers,
Technova,
Boz Scaggs,
Kenny Larkin,
Guru Guru,
Gong,
The New Christs,
Drexciya,
Deadbeat,
Livin' Joy,
Second Layer,
Rekid,
Average White Band,
Oneida,
Godley & Creme,
Marcia Griffiths,
Ronan,
Jimmy McGriff,
Harmonia,
Lou Reed,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Suicide,
The Gap Band,
The Five Americans,
Television,
Toni Rubio,
Sexual Harrassment,
Pantaleimon,
Morten Harket,
The Dave Clark Five,
Throbbing Gristle,
New York Dolls,
The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins, The Moleskins.
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.