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 Switzerland and from Copenhagen.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1983 at the first Art of Noise practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the guitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Intrusion to the punk 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 Idris Muhammad. All the underground hits.
All Zapp tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Vainqueur record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 rhodes and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Todd Rundgren record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Kurtis Blow,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Sonics,
Rites of Spring,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The J.B.'s,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Bad Manners,
The Offenders,
Rosa Yemen,
The Stooges,
Godley & Creme,
Buzzcocks,
Von Mondo,
In Retrospect,
The American Breed,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Matthew Halsall,
Barbara Tucker,
Shoche,
Laurel Aitken,
Big Daddy Kane,
Harry Pussy,
The Fugs,
Hardrive,
Trumans Water,
Sonic Youth,
Nick Fraelich,
Grandmaster Flash,
Q65,
Brass Construction,
The Angels of Light,
Sly & The Family Stone,
X-Ray Spex,
Half Japanese,
Chrome,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Lakeside,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Lebanon Hanover,
Negative Approach,
MDC,
The Alarm Clocks,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Moody Blues,
Don Cherry,
Arab on Radar,
KRS-One,
The Buckinghams,
The Blackbyrds,
This Heat,
Y Pants,
Glambeats Corp.,
the Swans,
The Cramps,
Panda Bear,
Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt.
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.