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 Cape Verde and from Calgary.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1964 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 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 Pylon to the disco kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Arab on Radar. All the underground hits.
All Circle Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pharoah Sanders record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warren Ellis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pussy Galore,
Outsiders,
Don Cherry,
Eden Ahbez,
Johnny Clarke,
Gerry Rafferty,
Cheater Slicks,
Saccharine Trust,
New York Dolls,
Gang of Four,
Robert Wyatt,
Joe Finger,
New Order,
Arab on Radar,
Massinfluence,
Altered Images,
Theoretical Girls,
Judy Mowatt,
Intrusion,
Ice-T,
Scrapy,
Subhumans,
Tres Demented,
Sound Behaviour,
Aloha Tigers,
Talk Talk,
Silicon Teens,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
New Age Steppers,
The Buckinghams,
Skaos,
Brothers Johnson,
Black Bananas,
Traffic Nightmare,
Pantytec,
The Angels of Light,
The Cowsills,
Camberwell Now,
Warsaw,
Eli Mardock,
Funky Four + One,
The Electric Prunes,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Morten Harket,
Wolf Eyes,
Harpers Bizarre,
Suicide,
AZ,
Von Mondo,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Moleskins,
Flipper,
Jandek,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Television Personalities,
Jerry's Kids,
Drive Like Jehu,
Hoover,
Slick Rick,
Absolute Body Control,
Ossler,
Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco, Tropical Tobacco.
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.