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 Mozambique and from Accra.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 organ 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 Radiohead to the grime 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 Ornette Coleman. All the underground hits.
All X-Ray Spex tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slave record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Derrick May record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Kool Moe Dee,
Pulsallama,
The Star Department,
Cecil Taylor,
Lower 48,
Mission of Burma,
Cheater Slicks,
The Wake,
Spandau Ballet,
Nils Olav,
Roxy Music,
The Grass Roots,
Rotary Connection,
Bill Wells,
Althea and Donna,
Eve St. Jones,
Harry Pussy,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Model 500,
Hoover,
Gang of Four,
Radiopuhelimet,
Agent Orange,
Camberwell Now,
Hot Snakes,
Man Eating Sloth,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Cal Tjader,
Todd Rundgren,
Kenny Larkin,
Swans,
Scratch Acid,
Basic Channel,
Lindisfarne,
Kayak,
Donald Byrd,
The Black Dice,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Modern Lovers,
Barbara Tucker,
Anthony Braxton,
Quadrant,
Mandrill,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Trojans,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Altered Images,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Faust,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
E-Dancer,
The Electric Prunes,
John Cale,
Silicon Teens,
Roy Ayers,
Morten Harket,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Massinfluence,
the Bar-Kays,
Dead Boys,
Sixth Finger,
Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, Ronan.
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.