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 Sri Lanka and from Seoul.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the snare 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 James White and The Blacks to the funk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Arthur Verocai. All the underground hits.
All the Association tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & Metallica record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Trumans Water record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Qualms,
Ken Boothe,
L. Decosne,
The Monochrome Set,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Skatalites,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Cal Tjader,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Average White Band,
Ponytail,
Faust,
Massinfluence,
Nils Olav,
Dawn Penn,
The Pop Group,
Subhumans,
The Happenings,
Ultravox,
Amazonics,
Bizarre Inc.,
Fat Boys,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Smiths,
Outsiders,
Scott Walker,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Severed Heads,
Duran Duran,
Terry Callier,
The Stooges,
The Red Krayola,
The Slackers,
Ossler,
Jeru the Damaja,
Lungfish,
Man Eating Sloth,
The Smoke,
Sun City Girls,
Crispy Ambulance,
Eddi Front,
Thee Headcoats,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Gichy Dan,
the Association,
The Fall,
The Cowsills,
Pulsallama,
Roger Hodgson,
Infiniti,
Pharoah Sanders,
Darondo,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Crispian St. Peters,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Fatback Band,
Scientists,
The Star Department,
Liliput,
Sun Ra,
Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus, Bauhaus.
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.