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 Romania and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 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 Mad Mike to the grunge 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 The Walker Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Unwound tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Soft Cell record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roxy Music record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Judy Mowatt,
Aaron Thompson,
The Moleskins,
Danielle Patucci,
Wolf Eyes,
Thee Headcoats,
Nik Kershaw,
Malaria!,
Wire,
Harpers Bizarre,
Whodini,
The Music Machine,
Andrew Hill,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Associates,
Throbbing Gristle,
Donny Hathaway,
Tropical Tobacco,
Monks,
Darondo,
Roxette,
T. Rex,
A Certain Ratio,
Joensuu 1685,
Lyres,
Little Man,
Faraquet,
The Stooges,
In Retrospect,
Rod Modell,
Lower 48,
Mo-Dettes,
Altered Images,
The Knickerbockers,
Eli Mardock,
The Kinks,
Mantronix,
Ronan,
the Soft Cell,
Roy Ayers,
Kevin Saunderson,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Swans,
The Selecter,
Sex Pistols,
The Mummies,
Crispian St. Peters,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Tommy Roe,
Japan,
Crooked Eye,
Dawn Penn,
Echospace,
the Human League,
Inner City,
Reagan Youth,
Lightning Bolt,
Scion,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
OOIOO,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow, Henry Cow.
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.