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 Finland and from Seoul.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Beau Brummels 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 Real Kids. All the underground hits.
All Skaos tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Thompson Twins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eyeless In Gaza,
Blancmange,
Siglo XX,
LL Cool J,
Cluster,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sun Ra,
Funkadelic,
Sun City Girls,
The Fuzztones,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Jimmy McGriff,
Parry Music,
Ohio Players,
Dead Boys,
the Soft Cell,
Mad Mike,
Absolute Body Control,
Bronski Beat,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Maurizio,
Sparks,
JFA,
Bobbi Humphrey,
John Coltrane,
Television Personalities,
Derrick May,
John Holt,
the Bar-Kays,
Youth Brigade,
Bootsy Collins,
Fatback Band,
Suburban Knight,
Grandmaster Flash,
Roger Hodgson,
The Smoke,
Simply Red,
Kas Product,
UT,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Mission of Burma,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Gastr Del Sol,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
This Heat,
Janne Schatter,
Fluxion,
Danielle Patucci,
Public Image Ltd.,
Black Flag,
Funky Four + One,
Stockholm Monsters,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
John Foxx,
Monks, Monks, Monks, Monks.
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.