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 Kazakhstan and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in London and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 Robert Palmer 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 Lakeside to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Eli Mardock. All the underground hits.
All Q and Not U tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Big Daddy Kane record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno 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 an arpeggiator and an organ and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pierre Henry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The United States of America,
Bronski Beat,
Hasil Adkins,
Pagans,
Girls At Our Best!,
Nick Fraelich,
Throbbing Gristle,
Judy Mowatt,
The Slackers,
Michelle Simonal,
Ultimate Spinach,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Scientists,
Country Teasers,
Rites of Spring,
Sun City Girls,
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Germs,
Blancmange,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
The Monochrome Set,
The Golliwogs,
CMW,
Rosa Yemen,
UT,
Outsiders,
Funky Four + One,
Von Mondo,
Q and Not U,
Grauzone,
Bang On A Can,
Joe Finger,
Quadrant,
Isaac Hayes,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Barracudas,
Mad Mike,
Silicon Teens,
The Red Krayola,
Underground Resistance,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Monks,
Buzzcocks,
The Birthday Party,
The Grass Roots,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Tommy Roe,
In Retrospect,
Animal Collective,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Terry Callier,
DJ Style,
Flipper,
James White and The Blacks,
Alton Ellis,
Rotary Connection,
Fluxion,
Bootsy Collins,
Inner City,
Sun Ra,
Drexciya,
Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock, Eli Mardock.
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.