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 the UAE and from Mumbai.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Milan.
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 Human League practice in a loft in Sheffield.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Buzzcocks to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Throbbing Gristle. All the underground hits.
All Circle Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Barry Ungar 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sandy B record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobbi Humphrey,
the Slits,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Shuggie Otis,
Steve Hackett,
Frankie Knuckles,
LL Cool J,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Sound,
Radiohead,
Hoover,
Althea and Donna,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Los Fastidios,
Bad Manners,
June Days,
Hot Snakes,
Boredoms,
Sun Ra,
DJ Style,
Animal Collective,
Deepchord,
Pere Ubu,
Roxy Music,
Ken Boothe,
Laurel Aitken,
Grauzone,
The Smoke,
Lakeside,
Outsiders,
Faraquet,
Popol Vuh,
The Black Dice,
Sonic Youth,
Black Flag,
Crispy Ambulance,
Bill Wells,
Scan 7,
Crime,
The United States of America,
Theoretical Girls,
10cc,
Fad Gadget,
Stockholm Monsters,
Das Ding,
Glenn Branca,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Mars,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Eli Mardock,
Soft Cell,
Lou Christie,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pharoah Sanders,
X-101,
Basic Channel,
The Vogues,
David Axelrod,
Surgeon,
KRS-One,
A Certain Ratio,
The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets, The Last Poets.
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.