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 Ivory Coast and from Seoul.
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 1963 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 at the first Suicide practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Lee Hazlewood to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Surgeon. All the underground hits.
All Magma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 chamberlin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ajijia Myrayebe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Amon Düül,
Joy Division,
Scientists,
Motorama,
E-Dancer,
Mark Hollis,
X-101,
Wire,
Monolake,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Main Source,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Susan Cadogan,
Zapp,
Ronnie Foster,
Peter and Kerry,
Kool Moe Dee,
Hasil Adkins,
The Five Americans,
Intrusion,
Ronan,
Oneida,
Nick Fraelich,
Freddie Wadling,
Reuben Wilson,
Warren Ellis,
The Slits,
The Saints,
Joey Negro,
Derrick Morgan,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Joensuu 1685,
Depeche Mode,
Model 500,
Lakeside,
Surgeon,
These Immortal Souls,
The Wake,
Sound Behaviour,
Minor Threat,
The Happenings,
Faust,
Derrick May,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Alarm Clocks,
Janne Schatter,
The Neon Judgement,
The Fall,
Drexciya,
the Germs,
Tears for Fears,
Delta 5,
Suicide,
The Skatalites,
Gong,
Accadde A,
Sam Rivers,
Half Japanese,
Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters, Crispian St. Peters.
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.