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 Qatar and from New York.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 The Buckinghams 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 Bush Tetras. All the underground hits.
All Television tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Slits record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Searchers record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sixth Finger,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Human League,
Jimmy McGriff,
Crispy Ambulance,
Amon Düül,
John Coltrane,
Slick Rick,
Motorama,
Tom Boy,
Aural Exciters,
Mary Jane Girls,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Panda Bear,
Radiohead,
Easy Going,
Dead Boys,
The Real Kids,
Liliput,
Prince Buster,
Man Eating Sloth,
Pulsallama,
Avey Tare,
Section 25,
Donny Hathaway,
Sun City Girls,
Arcadia,
Dual Sessions,
Glenn Branca,
Au Pairs,
Piero Umiliani,
Tommy Roe,
Dennis Brown,
Leonard Cohen,
Judy Mowatt,
Scion,
Roger Hodgson,
The Move,
Sam Rivers,
Oneida,
B.T. Express,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
David Axelrod,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Sonic Youth,
Crime,
Pierre Henry,
Black Moon,
cv313,
Chrome,
Tubeway Army,
FM Einheit,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
The Offenders,
the Swans,
Ultra Naté,
The Residents,
Pantytec,
Rites of Spring,
The Monks,
Radio Birdman,
Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry, Don Cherry.
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.