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 Haiti and from Toronto.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Basic Channel 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 Radiohead. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ituana record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pole record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Blake Baxter,
Donald Byrd,
Gichy Dan,
Don Cherry,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Bobby Sherman,
Kerrie Biddell,
Anakelly,
The Buckinghams,
The Gap Band,
Minutemen,
The Victims,
Faust,
Essential Logic,
Reuben Wilson,
Agent Orange,
Aswad,
Subhumans,
Tim Buckley,
The Monks,
Whodini,
The Velvet Underground,
The Smiths,
Laurel Aitken,
Cameo,
Black Pus,
The Fuzztones,
Oblivians,
Sex Pistols,
Bush Tetras,
Adolescents,
Monks,
Gastr Del Sol,
Half Japanese,
Ponytail,
Marmalade,
Fela Kuti,
Buzzcocks,
Scrapy,
Symarip,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Cecil Taylor,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Tropical Tobacco,
a-ha,
Max Romeo,
Morten Harket,
James White and The Blacks,
The Neon Judgement,
Gerry Rafferty,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Dead C,
Technova,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Young Rascals,
Grey Daturas,
Ice-T,
Von Mondo,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Sound Behaviour,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.