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 Guinea and from Beijing.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 Wire practice in a loft in Watford.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 rock 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 Morten Harket. All the underground hits.
All Ossler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Guru Guru 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Last Poets record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The J.B.'s,
Marcia Griffiths,
Popol Vuh,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Cameo,
Pulsallama,
Jacques Brel,
Danielle Patucci,
Organ,
Bauhaus,
Agitation Free,
the Bar-Kays,
Pantytec,
ABBA,
Interpol,
Animal Collective,
Dennis Brown,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Pretty Things,
Gong,
Joensuu 1685,
Brothers Johnson,
10cc,
The Gap Band,
Malaria!,
The Evens,
Skaos,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Ornette Coleman,
The Dave Clark Five,
Johnny Clarke,
Dead Boys,
MDC,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Smoke,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Joy Division,
Oneida,
D'Angelo,
Crash Course in Science,
JFA,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Fugazi,
Ponytail,
Quantec,
Reagan Youth,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Excepter,
Crime,
The Doors,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Soft Machine,
Cecil Taylor,
Eve St. Jones,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Star Department,
Camouflage,
Gang Green,
Althea and Donna,
Harmonia,
Minor Threat,
Blossom Toes,
The Velvet Underground,
Lalann, Lalann, Lalann, Lalann.
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.