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 Cape Verde and from Taipei.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the theremin 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 Pantaleimon to the disco 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 OOIOO. All the underground hits.
All Ultra Naté tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Girls At Our Best! record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Angels of Light record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
New Age Steppers,
Aloha Tigers,
Los Fastidios,
Amon Düül II,
The Moody Blues,
Average White Band,
Andrew Hill,
Spandau Ballet,
the Swans,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Todd Terry,
The Modern Lovers,
Arab on Radar,
The Fire Engines,
Terry Callier,
Sun City Girls,
FM Einheit,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Ralphi Rosario,
Kas Product,
In Retrospect,
Dennis Brown,
Flamin' Groovies,
Television,
KRS-One,
Alison Limerick,
Heaven 17,
Judy Mowatt,
Grey Daturas,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Tubeway Army,
Audionom,
Man Parrish,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Pretty Things,
Easy Going,
Bad Manners,
Inner City,
Scan 7,
Mark Hollis,
Negative Approach,
Infiniti,
MC5,
The Human League,
Babytalk,
Tropical Tobacco,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Misunderstood,
Circle Jerks,
Eurythmics,
The Velvet Underground,
Roger Hodgson,
Young Marble Giants,
Gong,
Reuben Wilson,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Dawn Penn,
Brick,
Lakeside,
the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
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.