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 Niger and from Lagos.
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 1969 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 John Cale to the jazz 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 Jimmy McGriff. All the underground hits.
All The Peanut Butter Conspiracy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Technova record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pantaleimon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alphaville,
Sex Pistols,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Ludus,
John Lydon,
Radio Birdman,
Cal Tjader,
Parry Music,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Minutemen,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Count Five,
Big Daddy Kane,
Eric Dolphy,
Youth Brigade,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Gerry Rafferty,
Funkadelic,
The Saints,
The Golliwogs,
Hoover,
Sam Rivers,
Pulsallama,
The Evens,
The Busters,
This Heat,
In Retrospect,
Blake Baxter,
Max Romeo,
Ronnie Foster,
Bang On A Can,
LL Cool J,
Ralphi Rosario,
Porter Ricks,
Scan 7,
June of 44,
Amon Düül II,
Cymande,
Reuben Wilson,
Shoche,
Barry Ungar,
Magazine,
The Doors,
Surgeon,
Boogie Down Productions,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Gastr Del Sol,
Robert Görl,
Pole,
Franke,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Masters at Work,
Deakin,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Slick Rick,
Wire,
Easy Going,
The Motions,
Man Eating Sloth,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke, The Smoke.
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.