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 Bangladesh and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle 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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Robert Palmer 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 Beasts of Bourbon to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Kerri Chandler. All the underground hits.
All JFA tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Bananas record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 güiro and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Vaughan Mason & Crew record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sonics,
The Smiths,
The Sound,
Brass Construction,
Crime,
Khruangbin,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Rufus Thomas,
In Retrospect,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Robert Görl,
China Crisis,
Arcadia,
the Sonics,
The Moleskins,
Urselle,
Japan,
Lindisfarne,
The Velvet Underground,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Little Man,
Suicide,
Joe Smooth,
Roy Ayers,
Roxette,
This Heat,
The Count Five,
Graham Central Station,
Bronski Beat,
Brick,
Basic Channel,
Black Sheep,
The Cure,
Freddie Wadling,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Aural Exciters,
Rosa Yemen,
Siglo XX,
Inner City,
Gerry Rafferty,
Judy Mowatt,
Sandy B,
Joyce Sims,
June Days,
Metal Thangz,
Anthony Braxton,
Leonard Cohen,
JFA,
Nirvana,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Dorothy Ashby,
Jeff Mills,
Fatback Band,
Al Stewart,
Mo-Dettes,
The Slits,
Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight, Suburban Knight.
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.