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 Maldives and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1969 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the güiro 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 ABBA to the rap 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 New Order. All the underground hits.
All Jandek tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Funkadelic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Can,
Roxy Music,
The Golliwogs,
Unwound,
La Düsseldorf,
Crispy Ambulance,
Mandrill,
Whodini,
The Grass Roots,
Sight & Sound,
Sound Behaviour,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Robert Görl,
Dual Sessions,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Kurtis Blow,
The Misunderstood,
Cal Tjader,
The Dirtbombs,
The Stooges,
Fela Kuti,
ABBA,
Glambeats Corp.,
Howard Jones,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Swans,
Barry Ungar,
Neu!,
Lou Christie,
The Electric Prunes,
Patti Smith,
Quantec,
Black Bananas,
Throbbing Gristle,
Siglo XX,
Niagra,
Sexual Harrassment,
Surgeon,
The Young Rascals,
Gabor Szabo,
James White and The Blacks,
The Cure,
Lalann,
Sun Ra,
Rapeman,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
The Human League,
Adolescents,
Rites of Spring,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Moody Blues,
Section 25,
Marshall Jefferson,
Dawn Penn,
Todd Rundgren,
Brass Construction,
Josef K,
Radio Birdman,
Fear,
The Black Dice,
Thompson Twins,
Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru, Guru Guru.
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.