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 Guatemala and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1964 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud. All the underground hits.
All Blake Baxter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Red Krayola 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Swans record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Ultravox,
Lee Hazlewood,
PIL,
Gang Starr,
Lower 48,
Sun City Girls,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Banda Bassotti,
The Saints,
Peter & Gordon,
Prince Buster,
Livin' Joy,
Piero Umiliani,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
the Germs,
Siglo XX,
the Slits,
Curtis Mayfield,
Country Teasers,
Johnny Clarke,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Tremeloes,
Rhythm & Sound,
Iggy Pop,
The Standells,
Scientists,
The Golliwogs,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Velvet Underground,
Section 25,
Ten City,
The Gap Band,
Morten Harket,
Ultra Naté,
DNA,
Swans,
Icehouse,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Marmalade,
Mad Mike,
Technova,
Altered Images,
Circle Jerks,
Girls At Our Best!,
Eve St. Jones,
Dawn Penn,
Letta Mbulu,
Average White Band,
John Foxx,
Flipper,
Schoolly D,
Fad Gadget,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Remains,
Panda Bear,
The Cowsills,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Cybotron,
Althea and Donna,
Minutemen,
Harmonia,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.