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 Solomon Islands and from Portland.
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 1966 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the snare 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 PIL to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Desert Stars. All the underground hits.
All The Martian tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Hutcherson 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funkadelic record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Idris Muhammad,
The J.B.'s,
Joensuu 1685,
Fad Gadget,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Lakeside,
Tom Boy,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Make Up,
Drexciya,
Derrick May,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Anthony Braxton,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Warsaw,
Blossom Toes,
Big Daddy Kane,
Donny Hathaway,
Niagra,
Amazonics,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sexual Harrassment,
the Soft Cell,
Banda Bassotti,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
D'Angelo,
Jacques Brel,
The Count Five,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Dorothy Ashby,
Flipper,
The Velvet Underground,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Visage,
Man Eating Sloth,
June Days,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Kevin Saunderson,
Gong,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Electric Prunes,
The Stooges,
the Germs,
Dual Sessions,
Robert Hood,
Ice-T,
Faraquet,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Audionom,
Public Image Ltd.,
Animal Collective,
Spandau Ballet,
The Fugs,
U.S. Maple,
OOIOO,
Babytalk,
The Divine Comedy,
Half Japanese,
the Sonics,
Newcleus,
Sugar Minott,
Glambeats Corp.,
Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish, Lungfish.
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.