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 Kuwait and from Johannesburg.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Cymande to the rock kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Steve Hackett. All the underground hits.
All Dave Gahan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fugs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Youth Brigade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric Copeland,
Dorothy Ashby,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Move,
Glenn Branca,
DJ Style,
Lalann,
X-101,
Crash Course in Science,
Circle Jerks,
The Neon Judgement,
Robert Görl,
Cal Tjader,
The Last Poets,
Vainqueur,
Swell Maps,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Skaos,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Kool Moe Dee,
Jeff Mills,
Lou Christie,
Pierre Henry,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Lalo Schifrin,
Mission of Burma,
Siglo XX,
Radiohead,
Magazine,
Rhythm & Sound,
Ohio Players,
Deakin,
AZ,
Kas Product,
Skriet,
Sly & The Family Stone,
A Certain Ratio,
Spandau Ballet,
Aswad,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
the Germs,
Matthew Bourne,
Mark Hollis,
Gil Scott Heron,
Schoolly D,
Robert Wyatt,
New Order,
Laurel Aitken,
Essential Logic,
The Evens,
The Gap Band,
Al Stewart,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
Dennis Brown,
Jimmy McGriff,
Derrick Morgan,
Zero Boys,
Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood, Robert Hood.
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.