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 Argentina and from Paris.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Seeds to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Graham Central Station. All the underground hits.
All AZ tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rosa Yemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Last Poets,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
AZ,
Agitation Free,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Doors,
the Swans,
Joensuu 1685,
Harry Pussy,
The Wake,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Chrome,
The Gories,
Shuggie Otis,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
One Last Wish,
Soul II Soul,
The Durutti Column,
Crash Course in Science,
The Gun Club,
Cybotron,
Supertramp,
The Blackbyrds,
Minutemen,
Angry Samoans,
Funkadelic,
The Pretty Things,
Gang Green,
Gastr Del Sol,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
The Martian,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Lebanon Hanover,
Roxy Music,
Prince Buster,
Aural Exciters,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Shoche,
The Fugs,
Quando Quango,
DJ Style,
Cameo,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Black Bananas,
The Moleskins,
Chris & Cosey,
Ronan,
Aaron Thompson,
The Count Five,
Banda Bassotti,
Spoonie Gee,
Alice Coltrane,
Piero Umiliani,
Brand Nubian,
A Certain Ratio,
ABBA,
The Associates,
EPMD,
R.M.O.,
Lower 48,
Maleditus Sound,
MDC, MDC, MDC, MDC.
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.