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 Namibia and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Letta Mbulu to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Vainqueur. All the underground hits.
All Motorama tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Jandek 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Visage record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Shadows of Knight,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Public Enemy,
Hardrive,
Rosa Yemen,
Scrapy,
Swans,
The Sound,
Quadrant,
Black Bananas,
Technova,
ABC,
Connie Case,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Henry Cow,
Joensuu 1685,
Bizarre Inc.,
Aswad,
Audionom,
Half Japanese,
Iggy Pop,
Eurythmics,
Underground Resistance,
The Happenings,
The Moleskins,
The Zeros,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Stooges,
The Litter,
Popol Vuh,
Theoretical Girls,
Organ,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Tomorrow,
Tom Boy,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Flesh Eaters,
Mad Mike,
Susan Cadogan,
L. Decosne,
Gang Starr,
Warsaw,
Deepchord,
Thompson Twins,
Section 25,
H. Thieme,
Joey Negro,
Fear,
KRS-One,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Maurizio,
Robert Görl,
Moebius,
John Foxx,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Avey Tare,
Bang On A Can,
Desert Stars,
Scott Walker,
Sight & Sound,
Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt.
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.