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 San Marino and from Paris.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 Lou Reed 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 Richard Hell and the Voidoids to the crunk 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 Radio Birdman. All the underground hits.
All Minutemen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Buckinghams record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Shuggie Otis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Deakin,
Graham Central Station,
Stockholm Monsters,
Glenn Branca,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Public Enemy,
Black Flag,
Moby Grape,
The Last Poets,
Morten Harket,
Urselle,
Tears for Fears,
Lindisfarne,
Television,
Ronnie Foster,
Derrick Morgan,
Radiohead,
Blossom Toes,
Chris & Cosey,
The Shadows of Knight,
Suburban Knight,
Tubeway Army,
Juan Atkins,
The Dirtbombs,
Joe Smooth,
X-101,
New Order,
John Coltrane,
T.S.O.L.,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Altered Images,
PIL,
Severed Heads,
Vainqueur,
Heaven 17,
The Sonics,
Carl Craig,
John Cale,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Main Source,
Suicide,
The Index,
Brothers Johnson,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Stetsasonic,
Pulsallama,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Pierre Henry,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Zeros,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Slave,
Lower 48,
Marvin Gaye,
Mantronix,
F. McDonald,
Theoretical Girls,
The Gories,
Maleditus Sound,
Intrusion,
The Names,
Panda Bear,
Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren, Todd Rundgren.
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.