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 Morocco and from Copenhagen.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 Donald Fagen 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 Joey Negro to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Junior Murvin. All the underground hits.
All Warren Ellis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Eric B and Rakim 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Victims record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Organ,
Yazoo,
Gang of Four,
DJ Style,
Lyres,
Pussy Galore,
Hoover,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Television Personalities,
Kaleidoscope,
Electric Prunes,
Peter and Kerry,
Frankie Knuckles,
Althea and Donna,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Blake Baxter,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Marcia Griffiths,
Fugazi,
Swans,
Mo-Dettes,
Funky Four + One,
Chris & Cosey,
Das Ding,
Man Eating Sloth,
Spandau Ballet,
Warsaw,
Ituana,
T. Rex,
The Divine Comedy,
Pantaleimon,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Minnie Riperton,
Idris Muhammad,
In Retrospect,
Gerry Rafferty,
Basic Channel,
Surgeon,
Josef K,
Nation of Ulysses,
Joyce Sims,
Crooked Eye,
The Raincoats,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Jeff Mills,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Girls At Our Best!,
Marine Girls,
Rakim,
Lebanon Hanover,
Heaven 17,
The American Breed,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Velvet Underground,
Whodini,
Cameo,
Marshall Jefferson,
Soft Machine,
The Smoke,
Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk, Babytalk.
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.