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 Vietnam and from Accra.
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 1967 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Mumbai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Erasure to the rock 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch. All the underground hits.
All Yellowson tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Altered Images 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lower 48 record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Matthew Bourne,
The Smiths,
ABBA,
Man Eating Sloth,
Radiopuhelimet,
Ponytail,
Gregory Isaacs,
Black Flag,
Don Cherry,
Alphaville,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Brothers Johnson,
The Moleskins,
Second Layer,
Soul II Soul,
Bauhaus,
John Holt,
The Leaves,
New Age Steppers,
Boogie Down Productions,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Juan Atkins,
Au Pairs,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
OOIOO,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Fad Gadget,
Icehouse,
Bang On A Can,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Whodini,
Kurtis Blow,
Lower 48,
The Motions,
Scratch Acid,
Bobby Byrd,
In Retrospect,
The Durutti Column,
Ronan,
The Real Kids,
Letta Mbulu,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Lalann,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
PIL,
Unwound,
Amon Düül,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Gichy Dan,
Spoonie Gee,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Barracudas,
Dead Boys,
Throbbing Gristle,
Mandrill,
Animal Collective,
Blancmange,
Skaos,
The Fortunes,
Scion,
The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators, The Gladiators.
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.