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 Vanuatu and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch to the dance kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Michelle Simonal. All the underground hits.
All Dennis Brown tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Subhumans record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 guitar and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Flash Fearless record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Terry Callier,
Roxy Music,
John Cale,
Amon Düül,
World's Most,
Sight & Sound,
It's A Beautiful Day,
the Slits,
the Sonics,
The Gap Band,
Stereo Dub,
Joe Finger,
Youth Brigade,
Tres Demented,
Archie Shepp,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Skatalites,
The Red Krayola,
The Kinks,
The Knickerbockers,
the Swans,
Morten Harket,
Yusef Lateef,
Sam Rivers,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Radiohead,
Kerrie Biddell,
Underground Resistance,
Arab on Radar,
Gabor Szabo,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Cal Tjader,
Severed Heads,
Joy Division,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Roger Hodgson,
Eurythmics,
The Evens,
Curtis Mayfield,
The Index,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Index,
Von Mondo,
The Litter,
cv313,
Girls At Our Best!,
Chris & Cosey,
Jeff Lynne,
The Associates,
In Retrospect,
The Gun Club,
Juan Atkins,
New York Dolls,
the Association,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Excepter,
Joe Smooth,
Aaron Thompson,
Graham Central Station,
Altered Images,
Ronnie Foster,
Procol Harum,
Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, Ronan.
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.