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 Philippines and from Milan.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the guitar 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 Popol Vuh to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Buzzcocks. All the underground hits.
All Angels of Light & Akron/Family tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T. Rex record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 theremin and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Piero Umiliani record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Buzzcocks,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Brick,
Harmonia,
Rekid,
B.T. Express,
Nik Kershaw,
Chris & Cosey,
Rosa Yemen,
Newcleus,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
World's Most,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Dorothy Ashby,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
Sister Nancy,
Cabaret Voltaire,
X-102,
Don Cherry,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Television Personalities,
MC5,
One Last Wish,
Drive Like Jehu,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Neu!,
The Dead C,
Agitation Free,
Donald Byrd,
The Fuzztones,
Duran Duran,
Severed Heads,
Connie Case,
Sound Behaviour,
The New Christs,
Drexciya,
The Smoke,
This Heat,
John Lydon,
Supertramp,
Sam Rivers,
Nick Fraelich,
Oblivians,
Anthony Braxton,
The Kinks,
PIL,
Andrew Hill,
The Associates,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Funkadelic,
Slick Rick,
Liliput,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Sex Pistols,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Procol Harum,
The Gories,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Spandau Ballet,
Kayak, Kayak, Kayak, Kayak.
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.