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 Papua New Guinea and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 John Foxx to the funk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Franke. All the underground hits.
All Gang Green tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Robert Hood record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Faust,
Nas,
Roxette,
Al Stewart,
Peter & Gordon,
Robert Wyatt,
Johnny Clarke,
Roxy Music,
48th St. Collective,
Bill Wells,
Underground Resistance,
Unrelated Segments,
Glenn Branca,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Oneida,
Nation of Ulysses,
The Toasters,
Pylon,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Lyres,
The Black Dice,
The Associates,
Lucky Dragons,
Subhumans,
Scan 7,
The Durutti Column,
Ultra Naté,
Ludus,
Zero Boys,
Urselle,
Dennis Brown,
Monks,
Sun City Girls,
The Stooges,
the Bar-Kays,
The United States of America,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Morten Harket,
Infiniti,
The Selecter,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Dead Boys,
Severed Heads,
Frankie Knuckles,
The Last Poets,
Audionom,
Eric B and Rakim,
Crispian St. Peters,
Juan Atkins,
Scion,
Youth Brigade,
Popol Vuh,
Absolute Body Control,
Throbbing Gristle,
Suicide,
Delon & Dalcan,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Quando Quango,
Gil Scott Heron,
The Move,
Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light, Clear Light.
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.