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 Tonga and from Jakarta.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Hong Kong and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Seoul 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 1977 at the first Mistral practice in a loft in Amsterdam.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch to the disco kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Fort Wilson Riot tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Manfred Mann's Earth Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk 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 chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Tremeloes record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
Robert Hood,
The Cure,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Graham Central Station,
Sex Pistols,
Stiv Bators,
Essential Logic,
Black Flag,
Kurtis Blow,
Bobby Byrd,
Au Pairs,
The Beau Brummels,
Arcadia,
Hashim,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Ronan,
Dorothy Ashby,
Gang Gang Dance,
Sun City Girls,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Qualms,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Motorama,
Cal Tjader,
Pagans,
Terrestrial Tones,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Rotary Connection,
Mad Mike,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Dead C,
Popol Vuh,
the Fania All-Stars,
Tubeway Army,
Ken Boothe,
Funky Four + One,
Soul Sonic Force,
The Shadows of Knight,
Model 500,
Toni Rubio,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
the Soft Cell,
Ultravox,
The Skatalites,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Aural Exciters,
Harpers Bizarre,
Nick Fraelich,
Judy Mowatt,
Hardrive,
Blossom Toes,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Arthur Verocai,
Rod Modell,
the Normal,
Inner City,
Babytalk,
Altered Images,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
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.