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 El Salvador and from Lagos.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Taipei and Taipei.
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 1976 at the first Buzzcocks practice in a loft in Bolton.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Bang on a Can All-Stars to the rap kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 The Names. All the underground hits.
All Crispy Ambulance tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Görl record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 theremin and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ohio Players record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lalann,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Ornette Coleman,
The Star Department,
DNA,
Byron Stingily,
E-Dancer,
Parry Music,
The Last Poets,
Deakin,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Niagra,
Kas Product,
Moby Grape,
Inner City,
Ronnie Foster,
Mary Jane Girls,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Minutemen,
Duran Duran,
Tommy Roe,
Iggy Pop,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Ohio Players,
Jeff Mills,
The Toasters,
The Gladiators,
The Techniques,
Easy Going,
Stereo Dub,
Alphaville,
Thompson Twins,
Swans,
Sällskapet,
The Vogues,
Stetsasonic,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Camouflage,
Kurtis Blow,
Boz Scaggs,
Soft Machine,
Dorothy Ashby,
B.T. Express,
Cybotron,
The Electric Prunes,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
The Doors,
The Motions,
Harmonia,
Circle Jerks,
The Gap Band,
Al Stewart,
A Certain Ratio,
Whodini,
Black Pus,
Charles Mingus,
The Associates,
Chris & Cosey,
Eurythmics,
Pulsallama,
Slave, Slave, Slave, Slave.
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.