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 Moldova and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 theremin 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 Barclay James Harvest to the grime kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Throbbing Gristle. All the underground hits.
All Sun Ra tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gang Starr 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 '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 Mantronix record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gang of Four,
A Certain Ratio,
Depeche Mode,
Johnny Osbourne,
Newcleus,
Nation of Ulysses,
Unwound,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Glenn Branca,
Average White Band,
Kenny Larkin,
The Last Poets,
Oneida,
David Axelrod,
Sister Nancy,
MC5,
Funkadelic,
The Birthday Party,
Alphaville,
Bauhaus,
The Pretty Things,
David Bowie,
Boredoms,
Blancmange,
Harmonia,
Amon Düül,
Althea and Donna,
The Star Department,
Easy Going,
The Sound,
Graham Central Station,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sun Ra,
Marc Almond,
Fear,
Scientists,
AZ,
Clear Light,
Outsiders,
Magma,
John Foxx,
Rites of Spring,
Banda Bassotti,
48th St. Collective,
Alton Ellis,
Siglo XX,
Rakim,
The Fall,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The United States of America,
Brass Construction,
The Red Krayola,
Letta Mbulu,
Procol Harum,
Toni Rubio,
The Walker Brothers,
the Soft Cell,
Gregory Isaacs,
Slick Rick,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
John Coltrane,
Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities.
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.