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 Costa Rica and from Edmonton.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Jandek to the grime 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 Sly & The Family Stone. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Black Dice record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ice-T record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Roxy Music,
Black Bananas,
Pagans,
John Lydon,
The Young Rascals,
Jerry's Kids,
Underground Resistance,
Joe Finger,
Skarface,
The Beau Brummels,
Symarip,
Judy Mowatt,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Selecter,
The Divine Comedy,
Marvin Gaye,
OOIOO,
Black Sheep,
Erasure,
Tubeway Army,
Archie Shepp,
MC5,
Cheater Slicks,
Lebanon Hanover,
Tres Demented,
Rod Modell,
Joensuu 1685,
Desert Stars,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Dave Gahan,
Reuben Wilson,
Pylon,
Ultravox,
The Standells,
Robert Görl,
Alison Limerick,
Sarah Menescal,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Angry Samoans,
Camouflage,
Gong,
Stockholm Monsters,
the Fania All-Stars,
Animal Collective,
Maurizio,
Eurythmics,
Kas Product,
Lee Hazlewood,
Monolake,
Dawn Penn,
The Knickerbockers,
Marcia Griffiths,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Skriet,
Unrelated Segments,
The Monochrome Set,
Gabor Szabo,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Groovy Waters,
Blake Baxter,
Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget, Fad Gadget.
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.