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 Malta and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 guitar 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 Magma to the crunk kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Dorothy Ashby. All the underground hits.
All Colin Newman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Intrusion 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 guitar and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marine Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Whodini,
the Germs,
Cal Tjader,
John Coltrane,
Robert Görl,
Harpers Bizarre,
Banda Bassotti,
Panda Bear,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Jacob Miller,
The Stooges,
Moby Grape,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Toni Rubio,
Radio Birdman,
Wire,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
H. Thieme,
Country Teasers,
The Buckinghams,
Roy Ayers,
Dark Day,
Alton Ellis,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Inner City,
Barry Ungar,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Cure,
Andrew Hill,
Radiohead,
Magma,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
A Certain Ratio,
Model 500,
Brass Construction,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Urselle,
These Immortal Souls,
John Lydon,
Sällskapet,
Delta 5,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Standells,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Divine Comedy,
Skaos,
Grey Daturas,
Von Mondo,
Deadbeat,
JFA,
Rosa Yemen,
Altered Images,
Blake Baxter,
Yaz,
a-ha,
Q and Not U,
Crooked Eye,
Marine Girls,
the Sonics,
Graham Central Station,
Chrome, Chrome, Chrome, Chrome.
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.