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 San Marino and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Bowie show in Bromley.
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 1963 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 theremin 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 Interpol to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Chocolate Watch Band. All the underground hits.
All Country Teasers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Deepchord record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 guitar and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Fugs,
Arcadia,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Youth Brigade,
Graham Central Station,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Pharoah Sanders,
Scrapy,
Rapeman,
The Skatalites,
Man Parrish,
Oblivians,
Soul II Soul,
Eddi Front,
Donald Byrd,
Charles Mingus,
The Cure,
Lalann,
FM Einheit,
Flipper,
Supertramp,
Moebius,
DNA,
DJ Style,
Nas,
Zero Boys,
Henry Cow,
Aaron Thompson,
Hot Snakes,
Slave,
Amon Düül II,
Unrelated Segments,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Colin Newman,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Young Marble Giants,
Audionom,
Robert Wyatt,
Idris Muhammad,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Dorothy Ashby,
Connie Case,
the Slits,
the Swans,
The Vogues,
Girls At Our Best!,
Harmonia,
Tears for Fears,
Sun Ra,
Qualms,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Golliwogs,
La Düsseldorf,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Angry Samoans,
T. Rex,
Monolake,
Curtis Mayfield,
Barclay James Harvest,
Howard Jones,
Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band, Average White Band.
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.