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 Montenegro and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1960 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Tokyo.
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 spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Swell Maps 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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Marmalade tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül II,
Sex Pistols,
Pere Ubu,
Dead Boys,
Mo-Dettes,
John Lydon,
The Gories,
The Cowsills,
The Buckinghams,
The Evens,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Moleskins,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Shadows of Knight,
Deadbeat,
The Grass Roots,
Kayak,
The Fall,
L. Decosne,
D'Angelo,
Blancmange,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Yusef Lateef,
Zapp,
Vladislav Delay,
Bobby Byrd,
Television,
Altered Images,
Qualms,
Althea and Donna,
Matthew Bourne,
The Skatalites,
In Retrospect,
Scientists,
Dark Day,
Alton Ellis,
Gastr Del Sol,
Gang of Four,
Sun City Girls,
Heaven 17,
Hot Snakes,
AZ,
Silicon Teens,
The Stooges,
Ultra Naté,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bill Near,
Black Sheep,
Eve St. Jones,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Peter & Gordon,
Depeche Mode,
Q and Not U,
Colin Newman,
Pierre Henry,
Danielle Patucci,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
This Heat,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Reuben Wilson,
the Sonics,
Crispian St. Peters,
Ten City,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.