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 Sierra Leone and from Manchester.
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 1965 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Rapeman to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Piero Umiliani. All the underground hits.
All The Leaves tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Patti Smith record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Saccharine Trust record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Johnny Osbourne,
The Happenings,
Henry Cow,
Sun Ra,
Crash Course in Science,
The Vogues,
Suicide,
Blake Baxter,
Sixth Finger,
Ken Boothe,
The Mummies,
Danielle Patucci,
Don Cherry,
Stetsasonic,
Morten Harket,
Gil Scott Heron,
Yazoo,
The Offenders,
The Knickerbockers,
Loose Ends,
Tubeway Army,
Roy Ayers,
The Flesh Eaters,
Slave,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Rapeman,
Deadbeat,
Toni Rubio,
Youth Brigade,
Peter & Gordon,
Newcleus,
Easy Going,
Guru Guru,
Sight & Sound,
Maurizio,
Slick Rick,
La Düsseldorf,
Electric Prunes,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Whodini,
The Fuzztones,
Basic Channel,
L. Decosne,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Hasil Adkins,
Man Parrish,
Agent Orange,
The Skatalites,
Carl Craig,
Television,
John Cale,
Cecil Taylor,
Brothers Johnson,
Rekid,
Kool Moe Dee,
Moss Icon,
Das Ding,
The Trojans,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Au Pairs, Au Pairs, Au Pairs, Au Pairs.
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.