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 Malawi and from Jakarta.
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 1965 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Paris.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Warsaw to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Joe Finger. All the underground hits.
All Scratch Acid tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 808 and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Count Five,
Shuggie Otis,
Drexciya,
Rosa Yemen,
Warren Ellis,
Tres Demented,
DJ Sneak,
Fear,
Zapp,
Brick,
Scott Walker,
Marmalade,
Hot Snakes,
Junior Murvin,
X-101,
Marc Almond,
Vladislav Delay,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Panda Bear,
Aural Exciters,
Alice Coltrane,
Bob Dylan,
Ponytail,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Neil Young,
Peter & Gordon,
The Residents,
Ornette Coleman,
The Monochrome Set,
Television Personalities,
Eli Mardock,
Pulsallama,
Idris Muhammad,
Khruangbin,
The Standells,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Babytalk,
Rapeman,
Amazonics,
Depeche Mode,
Gang of Four,
Theoretical Girls,
Zero Boys,
R.M.O.,
Schoolly D,
Can,
Nirvana,
The Buckinghams,
Robert Hood,
a-ha,
Bootsy Collins,
Aaron Thompson,
Technova,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Mo-Dettes,
Camberwell Now,
Spoonie Gee,
Radiopuhelimet,
Alison Limerick,
The Happenings,
Essential Logic,
Skriet,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.