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 Uganda and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1961 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare 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 Surgeon to the funk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Last Poets. All the underground hits.
All Funky Four + One tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Raincoats 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fad Gadget record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pagans,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Dirtbombs,
The Litter,
Kaleidoscope,
Tears for Fears,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Stockholm Monsters,
Reagan Youth,
48th St. Collective,
Harmonia,
Unrelated Segments,
Hot Snakes,
Ornette Coleman,
Dawn Penn,
Trumans Water,
Malaria!,
Cheater Slicks,
Deadbeat,
Aaron Thompson,
Joe Finger,
Stiv Bators,
In Retrospect,
The Buckinghams,
The Gories,
The Walker Brothers,
AZ,
Amon Düül II,
Severed Heads,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
cv313,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Mo-Dettes,
Mr. Review,
Peter and Kerry,
Bob Dylan,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Rufus Thomas,
Warren Ellis,
Girls At Our Best!,
Section 25,
Cecil Taylor,
Anthony Braxton,
Hasil Adkins,
H. Thieme,
Carl Craig,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Mojo Men,
Erykah Badu,
UT,
Johnny Osbourne,
X-Ray Spex,
Television,
Lebanon Hanover,
Nas,
The American Breed,
Brothers Johnson,
Tubeway Army,
Andrew Hill,
Nils Olav,
Tres Demented,
Aswad,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy.
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.