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 Gabon and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Houston 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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Idris Muhammad to the disco 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 Royal Trux. All the underground hits.
All Girls At Our Best! tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Josef K record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Vogues record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scrapy,
Easy Going,
Warsaw,
Pantytec,
Ornette Coleman,
Darondo,
Nico,
the Slits,
The Evens,
The New Christs,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Gastr Del Sol,
Fort Wilson Riot,
E-Dancer,
Max Romeo,
DJ Style,
Unrelated Segments,
Graham Central Station,
The Blues Magoos,
Rotary Connection,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Circle Jerks,
Mad Mike,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Jimmy McGriff,
Slick Rick,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Standells,
Albert Ayler,
Joensuu 1685,
The Raincoats,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Television,
Crooked Eye,
The Stooges,
Fear,
Dark Day,
Altered Images,
Joy Division,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Music Machine,
Mo-Dettes,
Royal Trux,
Swans,
the Normal,
Fela Kuti,
Aural Exciters,
AZ,
Eli Mardock,
Sandy B,
Man Parrish,
The Velvet Underground,
Cheater Slicks,
Sex Pistols,
Y Pants,
Todd Rundgren,
Joyce Sims,
Dead Boys,
Cybotron,
Matthew Bourne,
DNA,
Stiv Bators,
Godley & Creme,
The Chocolate Watch Band, The Chocolate Watch Band, The Chocolate Watch Band, The Chocolate Watch Band.
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.