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 Dominica and from Stockholm.
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 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Man Eating Sloth to the dance 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 Television. All the underground hits.
All Jacques Brel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Arab on Radar 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Michelle Simonal,
Quadrant,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Residents,
Accadde A,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Make Up,
Althea and Donna,
Con Funk Shun,
Lower 48,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Stiv Bators,
Nico,
John Cale,
Los Fastidios,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Joe Smooth,
Flipper,
New Order,
Fugazi,
Moss Icon,
Agent Orange,
Technova,
Camberwell Now,
Sexual Harrassment,
Loose Ends,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Beau Brummels,
Basic Channel,
Suburban Knight,
Theoretical Girls,
Gang Starr,
Mo-Dettes,
Suicide,
48th St. Collective,
Porter Ricks,
Shuggie Otis,
Deepchord,
Girls At Our Best!,
The Gun Club,
The Velvet Underground,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Slackers,
Traffic Nightmare,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
MC5,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Neon Judgement,
Matthew Halsall,
Khruangbin,
Ludus,
The Cramps,
Albert Ayler,
The Cure,
Derrick Morgan,
Fat Boys,
John Coltrane,
Ponytail,
The Human League,
James White and The Blacks,
Sällskapet, Sällskapet, Sällskapet, Sällskapet.
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.