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 Ethiopia and from Salvador.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Liaisons Dangereuses to the jazz 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 Hot Snakes. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every L. Decosne 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ronan record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Massinfluence,
Glenn Branca,
Chris & Cosey,
Half Japanese,
Kenny Larkin,
X-102,
Barbara Tucker,
Donald Byrd,
The Searchers,
Liliput,
Matthew Bourne,
Sex Pistols,
Rakim,
Black Bananas,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Colin Newman,
Sam Rivers,
Deakin,
Animal Collective,
Pantytec,
David Bowie,
Alison Limerick,
Severed Heads,
Tubeway Army,
Bob Dylan,
Drive Like Jehu,
Bobby Womack,
The Busters,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Slackers,
The Beau Brummels,
Von Mondo,
Crooked Eye,
The Raincoats,
Monks,
Tommy Roe,
Blancmange,
Johnny Osbourne,
Icehouse,
The Happenings,
Neil Young,
Nation of Ulysses,
the Sonics,
The Barracudas,
Dorothy Ashby,
Peter and Kerry,
Roxette,
Spandau Ballet,
Erykah Badu,
Gabor Szabo,
Minny Pops,
Eddi Front,
Reagan Youth,
The Names,
Bauhaus,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
The Human League,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Au Pairs,
Adolescents,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.
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.