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 Kiribati and from Salvador.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 oboe 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 Dennis Brown to the disco 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 Make Up. All the underground hits.
All Vaughan Mason & Crew tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Sister Nancy 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Warsaw record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
8 Eyed Spy,
Qualms,
Radiohead,
Donny Hathaway,
Lindisfarne,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Flipper,
Skriet,
Kayak,
Gong,
The Neon Judgement,
Parry Music,
The Vogues,
The Modern Lovers,
The Residents,
Heaven 17,
Tim Buckley,
Ten City,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Wire,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Bronski Beat,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Brick,
Johnny Clarke,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Magazine,
The Happenings,
the Sonics,
Visage,
Jacob Miller,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Los Fastidios,
The Move,
Girls At Our Best!,
Kerri Chandler,
The Human League,
Sam Rivers,
Accadde A,
Dead Boys,
Au Pairs,
Dorothy Ashby,
Janne Schatter,
Junior Murvin,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Gun Club,
Popol Vuh,
World's Most,
The Searchers,
The Blues Magoos,
Robert Görl,
Deakin,
Visionaries,LMNO, T- Love & Iriscience,
A Certain Ratio,
Smog,
The Grass Roots,
Khruangbin,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Charles Mingus,
Soft Cell,
Hasil Adkins,
Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Pet Shop Boys.
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.