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 Sierra Leone and from Beijing.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Columbus 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
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 The Standells to the techno kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Lonnie Liston Smith. All the underground hits.
All Youth Brigade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Minutemen 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sällskapet record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
Pantaleimon,
Talk Talk,
Newcleus,
Unrelated Segments,
Kaleidoscope,
JFA,
Make Up,
Siglo XX,
The Gun Club,
Ten City,
Reagan Youth,
Dorothy Ashby,
Boredoms,
Alison Limerick,
The Fall,
Josef K,
Minny Pops,
Flash Fearless,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
EPMD,
Jimmy McGriff,
Qualms,
Mars,
The Skatalites,
Arcadia,
Bootsy Collins,
Albert Ayler,
AZ,
Gong,
Dead Boys,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Nation of Ulysses,
Japan,
Public Image Ltd.,
Shuggie Otis,
Kool Moe Dee,
Skriet,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Monks,
the Swans,
Hasil Adkins,
Archie Shepp,
Ultravox,
Severed Heads,
John Lydon,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Scientists,
Underground Resistance,
Man Parrish,
The Smoke,
Spoonie Gee,
Maurizio,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Eli Mardock,
Public Enemy,
Jesper Dahlback,
Fat Boys,
Lungfish,
the Human League,
Fear,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot, Fort Wilson Riot.
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.