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 Germany and from Tehran.
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 1969 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the guitar 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 Rahsaan Roland Kirk to the techno kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 F. McDonald. All the underground hits.
All Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Smiths record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Danielle Patucci record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crime,
Index,
Japan,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Jacob Miller,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Livin' Joy,
The Tremeloes,
Pierre Henry,
Los Fastidios,
Mandrill,
The Golliwogs,
The Electric Prunes,
Dorothy Ashby,
Drexciya,
Panda Bear,
Jerry Gold Smith,
In Retrospect,
The Count Five,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Amon Düül II,
Josef K,
Stereo Dub,
Black Flag,
The Monks,
Arcadia,
Heaven 17,
Alison Limerick,
Scrapy,
ABBA,
The Pretty Things,
The J.B.'s,
Sun City Girls,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Mummies,
Agitation Free,
Soft Machine,
Avey Tare,
The Cramps,
Motorama,
Cymande,
Public Image Ltd.,
Archie Shepp,
Fluxion,
Laurel Aitken,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Minny Pops,
Scott Walker,
Eli Mardock,
Duran Duran,
Bootsy Collins,
Buzzcocks,
Curtis Mayfield,
Michelle Simonal,
Minutemen,
Hot Snakes,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Symarip,
Gabor Szabo,
Jerry's Kids,
Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside, Lakeside.
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.