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 Libya and from Stockholm.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Spoonie Gee to the rap kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Nick Fraelich. All the underground hits.
All Henry Cow tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every China Crisis record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Man Eating Sloth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Ituana,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Music Machine,
The Real Kids,
Dark Day,
Severed Heads,
Ice-T,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Robert Görl,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
the Slits,
Barry Ungar,
Donald Byrd,
Television,
Pierre Henry,
Black Flag,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Brand Nubian,
Rotary Connection,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Residents,
Jeru the Damaja,
Urselle,
In Retrospect,
Judy Mowatt,
Dave Gahan,
Radiopuhelimet,
Flipper,
Monolake,
The Gun Club,
The Gap Band,
The Raincoats,
the Swans,
Loose Ends,
Lou Reed,
Eddi Front,
Fluxion,
Accadde A,
Pagans,
FM Einheit,
Average White Band,
The Saints,
The Busters,
Matthew Halsall,
Derrick May,
Tropical Tobacco,
Grandmaster Flash,
Fear,
Gong,
John Coltrane,
Warren Ellis,
Hardrive,
The Moleskins,
Anakelly,
Mission of Burma,
Cybotron,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Grass Roots,
David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.
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.