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 Trinidad & Tobago 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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Tehran.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Sight & Sound to the rock kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Intrusion. All the underground hits.
All In Retrospect tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Maleditus Sound 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nico record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Vainqueur,
Marcia Griffiths,
Mantronix,
Lightning Bolt,
Godley & Creme,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Victims,
The Smoke,
Roxette,
Bob Dylan,
Dark Day,
Pere Ubu,
Arab on Radar,
Slave,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
ABBA,
Graham Central Station,
Rites of Spring,
Kool Moe Dee,
Colin Newman,
Albert Ayler,
Scion,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Seeds,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Metal Thangz,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Surgeon,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Chrome,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Gap Band,
Donny Hathaway,
Ralphi Rosario,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
T.S.O.L.,
Grey Daturas,
H. Thieme,
Terrestrial Tones,
Ken Boothe,
Kas Product,
Black Flag,
Joe Smooth,
Pussy Galore,
Hot Snakes,
Sex Pistols,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Gang of Four,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
X-102,
The New Christs,
Con Funk Shun,
Maurizio,
Leonard Cohen,
Pole,
Idris Muhammad,
Wally Richardson,
Tim Buckley,
Zapp,
Chris & Cosey,
Porter Ricks,
The Count Five,
The Grass Roots,
Japan, Japan, Japan, Japan.
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.