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 Burkina and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1968 at the first Bowie practice in a loft in Bromley.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Lonnie Liston Smith to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Essential Logic. All the underground hits.
All 48th St. Collective tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lou Reed & John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 oboe and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Altered Images,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
MDC,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Leonard Cohen,
Gang of Four,
Moebius,
Alison Limerick,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Lower 48,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Joe Finger,
Bush Tetras,
Brick,
The Associates,
Mary Jane Girls,
Godley & Creme,
Crooked Eye,
Eden Ahbez,
Sällskapet,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Gong,
The Alarm Clocks,
Man Eating Sloth,
Oblivians,
Technova,
Radiopuhelimet,
Blancmange,
Jimmy McGriff,
Roger Hodgson,
Bauhaus,
Underground Resistance,
LL Cool J,
Josef K,
Colin Newman,
Big Daddy Kane,
Dave Gahan,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lalo Schifrin,
John Cale,
The Velvet Underground,
Visage,
Mad Mike,
The Fire Engines,
JFA,
Harpers Bizarre,
Groovy Waters,
Sonic Youth,
The Slackers,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Chrome,
Malaria!,
Morten Harket,
Derrick Morgan,
La Düsseldorf,
Gabor Szabo,
Peter and Kerry,
A Certain Ratio,
The Last Poets,
Lebanon Hanover,
Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman, Radio Birdman.
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.