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 Malta and from Hong Kong.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Wally Richardson to the grunge 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 Altered Images. All the underground hits.
All Teenage Jesus and the Jerks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gian Franco Pienzio record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Monks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Zero Boys,
Donald Byrd,
Kerri Chandler,
Sex Pistols,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Fugs,
Gichy Dan,
Scratch Acid,
Pylon,
Los Fastidios,
The Techniques,
Intrusion,
The Invisible,
The Cure,
Lalann,
Agitation Free,
Archie Shepp,
Cal Tjader,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kenny Larkin,
Big Daddy Kane,
Sonic Youth,
Television,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Buckinghams,
The Gap Band,
Steve Hackett,
Von Mondo,
The Toasters,
The Associates,
Absolute Body Control,
Bluetip,
Tubeway Army,
Sight & Sound,
Throbbing Gristle,
New Age Steppers,
Graham Central Station,
Public Image Ltd.,
Matthew Halsall,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Avey Tare,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Bill Wells,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The United States of America,
Dead Boys,
The Fuzztones,
Basic Channel,
Mo-Dettes,
Interpol,
Pet Shop Boys,
Vainqueur,
Sugar Minott,
Terrestrial Tones,
Chrome,
Gang of Four,
Cecil Taylor,
the Normal,
Traffic Nightmare,
Pantaleimon,
Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu, Letta Mbulu.
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.