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 Madagascar and from Paris.
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 1967 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Roy Ayers to the disco 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 Scientists. All the underground hits.
All Blancmange tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gong record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kurtis Blow record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
The Skatalites,
Goldenarms,
Pantytec,
The Monochrome Set,
Blossom Toes,
Nik Kershaw,
Soul II Soul,
The New Christs,
Fad Gadget,
Derrick May,
Steve Hackett,
MC5,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
New York Dolls,
Suicide,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Gun Club,
Circle Jerks,
Minutemen,
Sugar Minott,
Gong,
The Fire Engines,
Byron Stingily,
Grauzone,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
the Germs,
Michelle Simonal,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Rosa Yemen,
Fela Kuti,
Laurel Aitken,
Fluxion,
Quadrant,
Ludus,
Lou Reed,
Unwound,
Barry Ungar,
Warsaw,
Monks,
MDC,
KRS-One,
Television,
OOIOO,
Reagan Youth,
Radiopuhelimet,
Porter Ricks,
Babytalk,
Mary Jane Girls,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Sixth Finger,
New Age Steppers,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Traffic Nightmare,
Dennis Brown,
The Misunderstood,
The Birthday Party,
Negative Approach,
X-Ray Spex,
Visage, Visage, Visage, Visage.
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.