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 Tonga and from Lille.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Accra and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Tom Boy to the disco 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 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. All the underground hits.
All Lee Hazlewood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scott Walker + Sunn O))) record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Henry Cow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Babytalk,
Dark Day,
The Cure,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Clear Light,
UT,
Scion,
A Certain Ratio,
Funky Four + One,
Pierre Henry,
Maurizio,
Morten Harket,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Kayak,
Harry Pussy,
Joey Negro,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Amon Düül II,
Bluetip,
Faust,
Animal Collective,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Simply Red,
Cymande,
The Sisters of Mercy,
New Age Steppers,
Hashim,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Groovy Waters,
Visage,
Eric Copeland,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
MDC,
Qualms,
ABBA,
The Monks,
Pharoah Sanders,
Andrew Hill,
Delon & Dalcan,
Nation of Ulysses,
Camouflage,
Tommy Roe,
Eli Mardock,
Delta 5,
Max Romeo,
Scrapy,
Eve St. Jones,
the Normal,
Unwound,
Moebius,
Lakeside,
Excepter,
Audionom,
Lou Christie,
Urselle,
Roy Ayers,
The Buckinghams,
Country Teasers,
Barry Ungar,
Mission of Burma,
Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas, Black Bananas.
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.