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 Israel and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1964 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 New Order to the rap kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Bang on a Can All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All Bootsy's Rubber Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sandy B record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Symarip record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
a-ha,
Bauhaus,
Sandy B,
R.M.O.,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tres Demented,
Rosa Yemen,
Alphaville,
10cc,
Steve Hackett,
Fad Gadget,
Stockholm Monsters,
Frankie Knuckles,
Talk Talk,
Angry Samoans,
Pole,
Pagans,
Kerri Chandler,
Technova,
Khruangbin,
The Selecter,
The Misunderstood,
Pet Shop Boys,
John Coltrane,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Dead C,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Jacob Miller,
Outsiders,
Unwound,
The Divine Comedy,
Pulsallama,
Soul II Soul,
John Lydon,
Loose Ends,
Delon & Dalcan,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
E-Dancer,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Searchers,
Man Eating Sloth,
Altered Images,
Fugazi,
Lakeside,
Funkadelic,
Con Funk Shun,
Shoche,
Wally Richardson,
the Human League,
ABC,
Inner City,
Aswad,
Tomorrow,
Quadrant,
Sällskapet,
The Associates,
AZ,
Jerry's Kids,
Wire,
Curtis Mayfield,
Second Layer,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Byron Stingily,
David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod, David Axelrod.
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.