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 Tuvalu and from New York.
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 1962 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Minutemen to the funk 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 Human League. All the underground hits.
All Bush Tetras tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Moebius record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 rhodes and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Procol Harum,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Gladiators,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Circle Jerks,
Black Pus,
Arthur Verocai,
The Saints,
Little Man,
Urselle,
Lee Hazlewood,
Susan Cadogan,
David Axelrod,
Dennis Brown,
Scrapy,
Carl Craig,
Ultimate Spinach,
Yazoo,
Heaven 17,
the Slits,
The Alarm Clocks,
Morten Harket,
One Last Wish,
Piero Umiliani,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Jeff Lynne,
Shuggie Otis,
Massinfluence,
Marmalade,
The Toasters,
Faraquet,
The Martian,
Fear,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Public Image Ltd.,
the Human League,
Pagans,
The Trojans,
Amazonics,
Wire,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Silicon Teens,
Crispy Ambulance,
Judy Mowatt,
Adolescents,
Black Moon,
Chris Corsano,
Anthony Braxton,
Masters at Work,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Mark Hollis,
Aaron Thompson,
Anakelly,
Boogie Down Productions,
Mantronix,
This Heat,
The Fire Engines,
In Retrospect,
Sällskapet,
Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans.
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.