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 Chad and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to the grunge 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 Pagans. All the underground hits.
All the Normal tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Quando Quango record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rites of Spring record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
MC5,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Moby Grape,
Monks,
Freddie Wadling,
Von Mondo,
Negative Approach,
T. Rex,
Khruangbin,
Jesper Dahlback,
Ten City,
Gregory Isaacs,
Skriet,
Model 500,
This Heat,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Buckinghams,
Tropical Tobacco,
Jacques Brel,
Theoretical Girls,
Sun City Girls,
The Wake,
The J.B.'s,
Marshall Jefferson,
Cymande,
Chris & Cosey,
The Misunderstood,
Absolute Body Control,
Nirvana,
Public Image Ltd.,
Darondo,
Bill Near,
The Velvet Underground,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Last Poets,
Connie Case,
Rod Modell,
Cecil Taylor,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Johnny Clarke,
Harpers Bizarre,
Porter Ricks,
Michelle Simonal,
Joensuu 1685,
Matthew Halsall,
June Days,
the Bar-Kays,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Rufus Thomas,
The Flesh Eaters,
Motorama,
Slick Rick,
Suburban Knight,
Babytalk,
The Evens,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Hoover,
The Offenders,
Faust,
the Germs, the Germs, the Germs, the Germs.
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.