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 Guinea-Bissau and from Johannesburg.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Seoul and Hong Kong.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 theremin 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 Kevin Saunderson to the punk 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 Alton Ellis. All the underground hits.
All The New Christs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Golliwogs record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Henry Cow,
X-102,
Dawn Penn,
Wolf Eyes,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Symarip,
Cal Tjader,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Eden Ahbez,
Scrapy,
Brass Construction,
Aloha Tigers,
Kerri Chandler,
Shoche,
The Buckinghams,
Rosa Yemen,
Jacob Miller,
Pharoah Sanders,
Amazonics,
Outsiders,
Hoover,
Silicon Teens,
Alison Limerick,
Fear,
Soul II Soul,
Sexual Harrassment,
Flipper,
Babytalk,
Terrestrial Tones,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
The Smiths,
Japan,
Monks,
Slick Rick,
Gichy Dan,
Al Stewart,
Maleditus Sound,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Ten City,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Crime,
Dead Boys,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Sex Pistols,
Idris Muhammad,
Brick,
Blake Baxter,
X-Ray Spex,
A Certain Ratio,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
Subhumans,
The Last Poets,
Rites of Spring,
New York Dolls,
Barry Ungar,
David Axelrod,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bobby Womack,
Funky Four + One,
Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters, Stockholm Monsters.
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.