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 Honduras and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 theremin 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 Television Personalities to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Newcleus. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Con Funk Shun 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gregory Isaacs,
Hoover,
It's A Beautiful Day,
June of 44,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Index,
Malaria!,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Erasure,
Dead Boys,
The Selecter,
The Young Rascals,
Amon Düül,
Soul Sonic Force,
Brick,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Soft Cell,
David Axelrod,
X-102,
The Wake,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Tim Buckley,
Bush Tetras,
The Moleskins,
Bronski Beat,
Sound Behaviour,
DJ Style,
Amazonics,
Pierre Henry,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Dennis Brown,
Wasted Youth,
Stiv Bators,
Depeche Mode,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Prince Buster,
PIL,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Qualms,
Kurtis Blow,
LL Cool J,
Adolescents,
Eric B and Rakim,
Icehouse,
The Grass Roots,
OOIOO,
Todd Rundgren,
Cameo,
a-ha,
the Soft Cell,
The Cowsills,
Das Ding,
Sister Nancy,
Swell Maps,
Joyce Sims,
Bill Near,
Rotary Connection,
Lalo Schifrin,
Charles Mingus,
The Beau Brummels,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Jandek,
Warren Ellis,
Stockholm Monsters,
Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker, Barbara Tucker.
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.