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 Sierra Leone and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Blancmange to the grunge 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 Black Bananas. All the underground hits.
All Bang on a Can All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ludus record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 rhodes and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a R.M.O. record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Michelle Simonal,
Malaria!,
OOIOO,
Supertramp,
Derrick Morgan,
Underground Resistance,
The Techniques,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Tears for Fears,
The Last Poets,
Todd Rundgren,
Accadde A,
Symarip,
The Dirtbombs,
Lalann,
Mission of Burma,
Maurizio,
David McCallum,
Banda Bassotti,
Cluster,
Babytalk,
Skriet,
Pagans,
Nico,
The Grass Roots,
Nirvana,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Black Sheep,
Second Layer,
Hasil Adkins,
Sight & Sound,
Quando Quango,
Loose Ends,
Lalo Schifrin,
The Stooges,
Gerry Rafferty,
Clear Light,
Bobby Womack,
Mandrill,
Visage,
Lebanon Hanover,
Sun City Girls,
June Days,
Derrick May,
Wire,
Lightning Bolt,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Idris Muhammad,
Swell Maps,
Rotary Connection,
Reagan Youth,
Sixth Finger,
Hardrive,
The Real Kids,
Pierre Henry,
New Order,
Gastr Del Sol,
Lyres,
Ponytail,
Sällskapet,
Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron, Gil Scott Heron.
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.