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 Zimbabwe and from New York.
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 1964 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the organ 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 Slick Rick to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Television Personalities. All the underground hits.
All Rapeman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Traffic Nightmare 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Technova record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wings,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Brand Nubian,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
T. Rex,
Echospace,
Boogie Down Productions,
Pantytec,
Sugar Minott,
Popol Vuh,
The Toasters,
Shuggie Otis,
Amon Düül,
Leonard Cohen,
Joy Division,
The Cure,
Spoonie Gee,
Juan Atkins,
Barbara Tucker,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Ultravox,
The Buckinghams,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Altered Images,
Bobby Womack,
Gang Green,
The Offenders,
Brass Construction,
Derrick May,
Youth Brigade,
Blossom Toes,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Tropical Tobacco,
Fluxion,
Niagra,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Dead Boys,
Rod Modell,
Circle Jerks,
B.T. Express,
The Sonics,
Subhumans,
The Smiths,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Zeros,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Flash Fearless,
The Happenings,
H. Thieme,
Ituana,
Grauzone,
Grey Daturas,
Fad Gadget,
The Moody Blues,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
One Last Wish,
The Pretty Things,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Wolf Eyes,
Ken Boothe,
Theoretical Girls,
Barclay James Harvest,
Visage, Visage, Visage, Visage.
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.