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 Marshall Islands and from Glasgow.
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 1968 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the organ 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 Boredoms to the rap kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam. All the underground hits.
All Crime tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Brothers Johnson 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Barry Ungar record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Tears for Fears,
Pere Ubu,
Barry Ungar,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Can,
Mandrill,
Lungfish,
Todd Terry,
Derrick Morgan,
The Golliwogs,
Yaz,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lyres,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Minor Threat,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Sarah Menescal,
Outsiders,
Crispy Ambulance,
Eric Dolphy,
Organ,
Deadbeat,
Jimmy McGriff,
Sun Ra,
The Saints,
Colin Newman,
Anthony Braxton,
Dawn Penn,
Slick Rick,
Peter & Gordon,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
The Five Americans,
The Mummies,
Nick Fraelich,
Tubeway Army,
The Sonics,
Moebius,
Al Stewart,
Los Fastidios,
Youth Brigade,
the Slits,
Smog,
Fifty Foot Hose,
ABBA,
Robert Hood,
Matthew Bourne,
Boogie Down Productions,
Erasure,
Sexual Harrassment,
Reuben Wilson,
Man Eating Sloth,
Judy Mowatt,
Oneida,
Carl Craig,
Ronan,
Dual Sessions,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Skaos,
Gregory Isaacs,
Laurel Aitken,
Absolute Body Control,
Ralphi Rosario,
Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry, Pierre Henry.
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.