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 Japan and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Marine Girls to the disco kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Kaleidoscope. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 marimba and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Neu! record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Camouflage,
The J.B.'s,
The Moody Blues,
The Divine Comedy,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Kayak,
D'Angelo,
Gil Scott Heron,
Deepchord,
The Dirtbombs,
Symarip,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Alice Coltrane,
Ohio Players,
The Sisters of Mercy,
The Fall,
Arcadia,
Godley & Creme,
Scientists,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Fela Kuti,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Altered Images,
Scott Walker,
The Evens,
Average White Band,
Bluetip,
The Smiths,
The Saints,
The Sound,
The Remains,
The Invisible,
X-101,
K-Klass,
Gregory Isaacs,
Barry Ungar,
Severed Heads,
Erasure,
Marmalade,
Rekid,
Yusef Lateef,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Drexciya,
Reagan Youth,
Zapp,
The Wake,
The Monks,
Funky Four + One,
Model 500,
Eddi Front,
Darondo,
Audionom,
UT,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Youth Brigade,
The Moleskins,
Black Moon,
Joensuu 1685,
Cluster,
Delta 5,
ABBA, ABBA, ABBA, ABBA.
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.