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 Bolivia 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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Das Ding to the punk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Hoover. All the underground hits.
All The Pretty Things tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Throbbing Gristle record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ossler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Siglo XX,
Sister Nancy,
Yazoo,
The Seeds,
Panda Bear,
The Residents,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tommy Roe,
Fear,
Sandy B,
Byron Stingily,
The Doors,
Reuben Wilson,
June Days,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sexual Harrassment,
Index,
Procol Harum,
Suburban Knight,
The Music Machine,
PIL,
The Victims,
The United States of America,
Marshall Jefferson,
Marcia Griffiths,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Black Flag,
Gichy Dan,
Sugar Minott,
Moebius,
Niagra,
Wally Richardson,
The Fire Engines,
Wasted Youth,
Kas Product,
Rhythm & Sound,
Bill Near,
The Smoke,
Sparks,
Wings,
The New Christs,
Black Moon,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Fortunes,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Second Layer,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Crispy Ambulance,
Unrelated Segments,
Cluster,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
China Crisis,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Move,
The Busters,
the Bar-Kays,
Zapp,
X-101,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Letta Mbulu,
Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants.
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.