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 Luxembourg and from Jakarta.
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 1962 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 1979 at the first Second Layer practice in a loft in South London.
I was working on the snare 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 Lungfish to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. All the underground hits.
All Gary Puckett & The Union Gap tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rites of Spring record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Pierre Henry,
Harmonia,
Bill Near,
Bobby Womack,
the Slits,
Youth Brigade,
Jawbox,
The Fuzztones,
OOIOO,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Supertramp,
T.S.O.L.,
Michelle Simonal,
Crash Course in Science,
The Buckinghams,
Brass Construction,
Avey Tare,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Audionom,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Zapp,
ABBA,
Joensuu 1685,
Gong,
Parry Music,
Radio Birdman,
Wings,
The Flesh Eaters,
Marine Girls,
Hoover,
Joe Finger,
Deepchord,
Skarface,
Rakim,
Lungfish,
Lyres,
Robert Wyatt,
Spoonie Gee,
Subhumans,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Wolf Eyes,
Carl Craig,
Chris Corsano,
The Slits,
Pagans,
Stockholm Monsters,
In Retrospect,
Cymande,
The Motions,
The Cramps,
Minor Threat,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Godley & Creme,
Simply Red,
Lalann,
Delon & Dalcan,
Judy Mowatt,
Silicon Teens,
The Black Dice,
The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds, The Blackbyrds.
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.