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 Kiribati and from Beijing.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Peter & Gordon to the punk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Dirtbombs. All the underground hits.
All June Days tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Names record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Theoretical Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Harmonia,
The Slits,
Yazoo,
Technova,
Eve St. Jones,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Smiths,
Kas Product,
Peter & Gordon,
Theoretical Girls,
Susan Cadogan,
Lungfish,
Boredoms,
The Raincoats,
Tres Demented,
Derrick May,
Deadbeat,
Soft Machine,
Rekid,
Quadrant,
The Alarm Clocks,
Eric Dolphy,
Young Marble Giants,
Lebanon Hanover,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Funky Four + One,
Eden Ahbez,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Suburban Knight,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Sparks,
The Fugs,
Con Funk Shun,
Roy Ayers,
Leonard Cohen,
Blake Baxter,
Brass Construction,
The Five Americans,
John Coltrane,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Durutti Column,
Kevin Saunderson,
Slick Rick,
Main Source,
Gang Starr,
The Move,
Hardrive,
Barbara Tucker,
Zero Boys,
Thee Headcoats,
Gang Green,
Hashim,
Scrapy,
The Blackbyrds,
In Retrospect,
Ohio Players,
Gabor Szabo,
The Mojo Men,
Sound Behaviour,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Barclay James Harvest,
Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy, Harry Pussy.
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.