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 Sudan and from Manila.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 1979 at the first Josef K practice in a loft in Edinburgh.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Eli Mardock to the techno kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Skriet. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ken Boothe record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lafayette Afro Rock Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amazonics,
The Remains,
Interpol,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sarah Menescal,
Dave Gahan,
Joyce Sims,
Fat Boys,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
The Cowsills,
Massinfluence,
Isaac Hayes,
Second Layer,
Pet Shop Boys,
The Fugs,
The Electric Prunes,
Gang Starr,
Delta 5,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Rakim,
Cymande,
Sam Rivers,
Swell Maps,
X-102,
Erasure,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Roxette,
Jandek,
T.S.O.L.,
Camberwell Now,
Ponytail,
the Soft Cell,
Ultra Naté,
Gregory Isaacs,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Buckinghams,
Sexual Harrassment,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Quadrant,
The Angels of Light,
Radiohead,
David Bowie,
The Martian,
L. Decosne,
Basic Channel,
Absolute Body Control,
Harpers Bizarre,
Michelle Simonal,
The Evens,
Althea and Donna,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Stockholm Monsters,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Panda Bear,
The Dave Clark Five,
Oneida,
Popol Vuh,
Bizarre Inc.,
Hasil Adkins,
Rites of Spring,
Rosa Yemen,
Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T, Ice-T.
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.