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 Ecuador and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 808 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 OOIOO to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Neil Young. All the underground hits.
All Lungfish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mandrill record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a A Flock of Seagulls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Das Ding,
Visage,
The Fire Engines,
New Order,
Amon Düül II,
Neil Young,
Wire,
a-ha,
Chrome,
The Smoke,
Amazonics,
Neu!,
Soul II Soul,
Prince Buster,
Lindisfarne,
Aural Exciters,
Derrick May,
Sonny Sharrock,
Moss Icon,
Leonard Cohen,
Mandrill,
Ossler,
Yazoo,
Susan Cadogan,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Five Americans,
Isaac Hayes,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Rapeman,
The Monks,
Warren Ellis,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Tubeway Army,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Glambeats Corp.,
Pussy Galore,
Bobby Byrd,
The Zeros,
Television,
Livin' Joy,
the Association,
The Gladiators,
Soft Machine,
Janne Schatter,
Tom Boy,
Idris Muhammad,
Donny Hathaway,
Grandmaster Flash,
Dave Gahan,
Maurizio,
The Last Poets,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Au Pairs,
Wolf Eyes,
Adolescents,
Newcleus,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.