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 Chile and from Lille.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Sad Lovers and Giants to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Monochrome Set. All the underground hits.
All Vladislav Delay tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fad Gadget 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Underground Resistance record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Royal Trux,
The Walker Brothers,
Niagra,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Steve Hackett,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Excepter,
Bluetip,
Tommy Roe,
Nation of Ulysses,
Minor Threat,
Malaria!,
Susan Cadogan,
The Dirtbombs,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lower 48,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Rapeman,
Sparks,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Martian,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
10cc,
Henry Cow,
a-ha,
Silicon Teens,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Dave Clark Five,
A Certain Ratio,
Pet Shop Boys,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Human League,
Flamin' Groovies,
The Slits,
Sex Pistols,
FM Einheit,
Sly & The Family Stone,
D'Angelo,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Mojo Men,
Tres Demented,
Bad Manners,
Traffic Nightmare,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Fatback Band,
The Wake,
Jimmy McGriff,
KRS-One,
Scott Walker,
Sarah Menescal,
Scan 7,
Severed Heads,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Saints,
Smog,
Oneida,
John Foxx,
OOIOO,
Maleditus Sound,
Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide.
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.