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 Tonga and from Bologna.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 harpsichord 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 Tom Boy to the dance kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Justin Hinds & The Dominoes. All the underground hits.
All Janne Schatter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mantronix record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Depeche Mode record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joyce Sims,
Pere Ubu,
Judy Mowatt,
Mandrill,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Y Pants,
Pantaleimon,
Wings,
Goldenarms,
Quantec,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Shadows of Knight,
Black Flag,
Maleditus Sound,
Camouflage,
Urselle,
Joensuu 1685,
Silicon Teens,
Arcadia,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Gang Green,
The Move,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Bad Manners,
Franke,
Juan Atkins,
Babytalk,
Warsaw,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Slits,
Freddie Wadling,
The Mummies,
Michelle Simonal,
Cluster,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
the Sonics,
The Five Americans,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Electric Prunes,
Q and Not U,
The Dave Clark Five,
Masters at Work,
A Certain Ratio,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Eli Mardock,
The Fugs,
Connie Case,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
The Barracudas,
Scientists,
Whodini,
Liliput,
The Litter,
Eric Copeland,
Cameo,
Inner City,
Alice Coltrane,
Jimmy McGriff,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker, Scott Walker.
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.