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 Mali and from Beijing.
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 1961 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 sitar 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 Hoover to the grime kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Ash Ra Tempel. All the underground hits.
All Oblivians tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Depeche Mode 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun Ra Arkestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Henry Cow,
Dorothy Ashby,
Hot Snakes,
Duran Duran,
Kenny Larkin,
Young Marble Giants,
Scratch Acid,
Pantytec,
Skaos,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Curtis Mayfield,
Funkadelic,
Derrick Morgan,
Half Japanese,
The Victims,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Buzzcocks,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Camberwell Now,
Motorama,
Pierre Henry,
Robert Hood,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
PIL,
The Stooges,
MC5,
Neu!,
Carl Craig,
Eden Ahbez,
Sam Rivers,
The Black Dice,
Don Cherry,
Kerri Chandler,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
James White and The Blacks,
Kevin Saunderson,
Charles Mingus,
Outsiders,
AZ,
Darondo,
Drive Like Jehu,
Sugar Minott,
Mary Jane Girls,
Minnie Riperton,
Liliput,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Crooked Eye,
Blancmange,
Scott Walker,
The Zeros,
10cc,
E-Dancer,
Joe Smooth,
Cheater Slicks,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gichy Dan,
the Swans,
New Age Steppers,
Nik Kershaw,
Technova,
Tommy Roe,
Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway.
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.