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 Bahrain and from Glasgow.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 synthesizer 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 Joe Finger to the punk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Sad Lovers and Giants. All the underground hits.
All R.M.O. tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Wasted Youth 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Detroit Cobras record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Duran Duran,
Reuben Wilson,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Deakin,
Glambeats Corp.,
Q65,
Bush Tetras,
Fatback Band,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Stetsasonic,
The Cramps,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Rapeman,
Bad Manners,
Sound Behaviour,
John Coltrane,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bobby Womack,
Guru Guru,
Gil Scott Heron,
Wolf Eyes,
the Fania All-Stars,
FM Einheit,
Sarah Menescal,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Stooges,
John Cale,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Flamin' Groovies,
Bill Wells,
R.M.O.,
Altered Images,
Eric Copeland,
Surgeon,
Quadrant,
Hasil Adkins,
Funkadelic,
Jandek,
In Retrospect,
The Pretty Things,
Jacques Brel,
Urselle,
Robert Hood,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Japan,
Dawn Penn,
The Misunderstood,
Yaz,
Nik Kershaw,
Zero Boys,
The Associates,
The Litter,
Fluxion,
Mission of Burma,
The Residents,
Radiohead,
Agent Orange,
Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach.
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.