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 Seychelles and from Woodstock.
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 1962 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the theremin 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 Vainqueur to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Alarm Clocks. All the underground hits.
All The Peanut Butter Conspiracy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Associates 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 '80s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Deadbeat record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Beasts of Bourbon,
Model 500,
Marmalade,
Mission of Burma,
Bobby Womack,
The Tremeloes,
Outsiders,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pole,
Suicide,
Banda Bassotti,
Minutemen,
Joey Negro,
The Selecter,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Essential Logic,
Soul Sonic Force,
Flipper,
The Golliwogs,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Pop Group,
Bootsy Collins,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Doobie Brothers,
Ken Boothe,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Japan,
Sun City Girls,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
EPMD,
Chris Corsano,
Qualms,
Visage,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Matthew Bourne,
Andrew Hill,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Iggy Pop,
Sight & Sound,
Cecil Taylor,
The Dead C,
Oneida,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Zero Boys,
The Fugs,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Vainqueur,
The Electric Prunes,
La Düsseldorf,
Motorama,
the Swans,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Adolescents,
Interpol,
Lyres,
Agitation Free,
Henry Cow,
Swans,
Eden Ahbez,
Kayak,
The Martian,
Johnny Osbourne,
Faust,
X-Ray Spex, X-Ray Spex, X-Ray Spex, X-Ray Spex.
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.