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 Panama and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Bronski Beat show in Brixton.
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 1961 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Be Bop Deluxe to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Albert Ayler. All the underground hits.
All Mary Jane Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Don Cherry 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Echo & the Bunnymen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
Ituana,
The Cosmic Jokers,
F. McDonald,
Excepter,
The Fugs,
Audionom,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Au Pairs,
Soul II Soul,
Minor Threat,
Lalo Schifrin,
Drexciya,
Matthew Halsall,
Warsaw,
Tommy Roe,
New York Dolls,
B.T. Express,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Flamin' Groovies,
Panda Bear,
The Gories,
The Shadows of Knight,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Ultra Naté,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Desert Stars,
Sarah Menescal,
Unwound,
Lyres,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pagans,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
One Last Wish,
The Kinks,
Fad Gadget,
Erykah Badu,
Ice-T,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Velvet Underground,
Q65,
Eli Mardock,
Sun Ra,
Arcadia,
Donny Hathaway,
Fugazi,
The Residents,
Public Enemy,
Skriet,
Section 25,
Blossom Toes,
Wasted Youth,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Funkadelic,
Beasts of Bourbon,
H. Thieme,
Underground Resistance,
Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode.
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.