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 Burkina and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Jerry's Kids to the rock 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 Shoche. All the underground hits.
All Radiohead tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Yaz record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Hardrive record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Selector Dub Narcotic,
CMW,
Minutemen,
Jerry's Kids,
Letta Mbulu,
Q65,
Metal Thangz,
Reagan Youth,
Symarip,
Terry Callier,
Public Image Ltd.,
Ultravox,
Fad Gadget,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Funkadelic,
Man Eating Sloth,
Joensuu 1685,
Dark Day,
Echospace,
Fat Boys,
Smog,
Kaleidoscope,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Black Flag,
R.M.O.,
John Holt,
Loose Ends,
Josef K,
DJ Sneak,
Marmalade,
Barry Ungar,
Theoretical Girls,
Monks,
Unwound,
Marine Girls,
Wire,
Laurel Aitken,
Colin Newman,
The Five Americans,
L. Decosne,
Darondo,
The Red Krayola,
Vainqueur,
The Walker Brothers,
Little Man,
The Fall,
The Smoke,
Sight & Sound,
Vladislav Delay,
Peter and Kerry,
Suicide,
Michelle Simonal,
The Divine Comedy,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Flash Fearless,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Jeff Mills,
Maurizio,
David Bowie,
Brothers Johnson,
The Buckinghams,
The Young Rascals,
Drive Like Jehu,
Zapp, Zapp, Zapp, Zapp.
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.