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 Brunei and from Bremen.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the guitar 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 Simply Red to the disco 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 Little Man. All the underground hits.
All The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Depeche Mode record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neu! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang Starr,
ABBA,
The Flesh Eaters,
Nirvana,
Harmonia,
A Flock of Seagulls,
FM Einheit,
John Foxx,
Crooked Eye,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Todd Rundgren,
Lee Hazlewood,
DJ Style,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
The Standells,
Cybotron,
Nas,
LL Cool J,
Scan 7,
Anthony Braxton,
Qualms,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Alarm Clocks,
The Monks,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Last Poets,
Heaven 17,
Liliput,
Wire,
Fat Boys,
OOIOO,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Tom Boy,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Tubeway Army,
Minnie Riperton,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Main Source,
Archie Shepp,
B.T. Express,
the Fania All-Stars,
Joy Division,
Peter and Kerry,
Youth Brigade,
Sam Rivers,
The Red Krayola,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Swans,
Barbara Tucker,
The Human League,
Yazoo,
Aswad,
Ossler,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Interpol,
Audionom,
Lebanon Hanover,
Lower 48,
Sugar Minott,
The Cramps, The Cramps, The Cramps, The Cramps.
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.