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 Liberia and from Woodstock.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Accra 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Aural Exciters to the electroclash 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 Jesus and Mary Chain. All the underground hits.
All The Gladiators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Standells record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a the Sonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Osbourne,
Circle Jerks,
Average White Band,
Pantaleimon,
Desert Stars,
Crispian St. Peters,
Pagans,
Scratch Acid,
Althea and Donna,
Freddie Wadling,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Techniques,
Soul II Soul,
Graham Central Station,
Marshall Jefferson,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Arab on Radar,
Skaos,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Rapeman,
The Durutti Column,
Moebius,
Lindisfarne,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Chrome,
Erasure,
The Seeds,
It's A Beautiful Day,
James White and The Blacks,
Inner City,
Black Pus,
Theoretical Girls,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Bobby Sherman,
Piero Umiliani,
Pantytec,
Youth Brigade,
Sexual Harrassment,
Quadrant,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Knickerbockers,
Rufus Thomas,
Public Enemy,
Harpers Bizarre,
Pere Ubu,
The Last Poets,
Kaleidoscope,
Shoche,
Yazoo,
Jerry's Kids,
Aswad,
The Human League,
Section 25,
JFA,
Byron Stingily,
Jandek,
Bob Dylan,
Danielle Patucci,
In Retrospect,
Lower 48, Lower 48, Lower 48, Lower 48.
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.