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 South Sudan and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Buzzcocks show in Bolton.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Rotary Connection to the rap kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Eric B and Rakim. All the underground hits.
All Clear Light tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Modern Lovers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 mellotron and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fugazi record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Isaac Hayes,
Whodini,
Maurizio,
Sparks,
Animal Collective,
The Gun Club,
Gastr Del Sol,
Warren Ellis,
Hardrive,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Ronan,
Warsaw,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Brothers Johnson,
Rotary Connection,
The Music Machine,
Sarah Menescal,
Wolf Eyes,
Archie Shepp,
Bang On A Can,
The Fire Engines,
Scan 7,
Pantytec,
Banda Bassotti,
Amon Düül II,
John Cale,
Yaz,
The Angels of Light,
Al Stewart,
Circle Jerks,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Intrusion,
Massinfluence,
Tears for Fears,
Mr. Review,
Flipper,
Terrestrial Tones,
Marmalade,
the Association,
Mo-Dettes,
The Tremeloes,
The Mummies,
The Star Department,
Jesper Dahlback,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bauhaus,
Albert Ayler,
Crime,
The Real Kids,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Lindisfarne,
Bobby Byrd,
Gang of Four,
Kurtis Blow,
The Associates,
Ice-T,
Roger Hodgson,
Alphaville,
Ludus,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.