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 Taipei.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 harpsichord 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 Sight & Sound to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Heavy D & The Boyz. All the underground hits.
All Scion tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Curtis Mayfield record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk 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 mellotron and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Judy Mowatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gastr Del Sol,
Bush Tetras,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Grey Daturas,
This Heat,
Nico,
Q and Not U,
Royal Trux,
Yazoo,
Nation of Ulysses,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Jeff Mills,
Erykah Badu,
The Modern Lovers,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Silicon Teens,
Iggy Pop,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Gang Gang Dance,
Technova,
Leonard Cohen,
Scion,
Banda Bassotti,
Ohio Players,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Vainqueur,
The Evens,
T.S.O.L.,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Underground Resistance,
The Divine Comedy,
The Toasters,
Goldenarms,
Deakin,
Altered Images,
Fluxion,
Camouflage,
Bill Near,
Hot Snakes,
Junior Murvin,
Index,
Ken Boothe,
The Dave Clark Five,
Kayak,
L. Decosne,
Max Romeo,
Black Bananas,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Rekid,
Gang Starr,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
DNA,
Joe Finger,
a-ha,
Cheater Slicks,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Ultimate Spinach,
Dawn Penn,
Loose Ends,
Soulsonic Force,
Marine Girls,
Reagan Youth,
Radiohead,
Electric Prunes,
The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs, The Fugs.
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.