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 St Kitts & Nevis and from Delhi.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the snare 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 Larry & the Blue Notes to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. All the underground hits.
All La Düsseldorf tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Siglo XX record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The United States of America record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Radio Birdman,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Kaleidoscope,
The United States of America,
The Young Rascals,
Aural Exciters,
Minnie Riperton,
Flamin' Groovies,
Marc Almond,
Drive Like Jehu,
Ornette Coleman,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Sun Ra,
Duran Duran,
Audionom,
Animal Collective,
Flash Fearless,
Delta 5,
Brand Nubian,
The Knickerbockers,
The Seeds,
Soul II Soul,
The Offenders,
The Doors,
the Bar-Kays,
Blake Baxter,
Pierre Henry,
La Düsseldorf,
Echospace,
Anthony Braxton,
Rites of Spring,
Dual Sessions,
Thompson Twins,
Nation of Ulysses,
Subhumans,
Crispy Ambulance,
Man Eating Sloth,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
UT,
Toni Rubio,
The Vogues,
Howard Jones,
The Dirtbombs,
Young Marble Giants,
Lungfish,
Big Daddy Kane,
Avey Tare,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Skaos,
Liliput,
Tears for Fears,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bizarre Inc.,
Quadrant,
Reagan Youth,
Charles Mingus,
Circle Jerks,
Sun City Girls,
Neil Young,
Janne Schatter, Janne Schatter, Janne Schatter, Janne Schatter.
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.