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 Mexico City.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 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 Rites of Spring to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Bob Dylan. All the underground hits.
All Reagan Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Little Man,
Lou Reed,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Soft Machine,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Durutti Column,
The Barracudas,
Harmonia,
Pylon,
Whodini,
Lakeside,
Todd Rundgren,
David Axelrod,
Freddie Wadling,
Agent Orange,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Alison Limerick,
Quando Quango,
Bootsy Collins,
Gang of Four,
Newcleus,
Robert Görl,
The Techniques,
The Buckinghams,
Oblivians,
Sonny Sharrock,
Jesper Dahlback,
Marc Almond,
Sugar Minott,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Cameo,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Niagra,
The Fugs,
Alton Ellis,
Roy Ayers,
Crooked Eye,
Aural Exciters,
The Invisible,
Tropical Tobacco,
World's Most,
EPMD,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Terrestrial Tones,
Kaleidoscope,
Radiopuhelimet,
Brand Nubian,
Flamin' Groovies,
Jeru the Damaja,
Sam Rivers,
Scion,
Howard Jones,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Dead Boys,
Lalann,
the Swans,
Franke,
Susan Cadogan,
Darondo,
Lee Hazlewood,
The Slits,
New Age Steppers, New Age Steppers, New Age Steppers, New Age Steppers.
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.