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 Palau and from Cairo.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 The Residents to the funk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Tropical Tobacco. All the underground hits.
All The Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Theoretical Girls 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Alphaville record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bronski Beat,
Bang On A Can,
Eden Ahbez,
Roger Hodgson,
Magazine,
Quantec,
Essential Logic,
Average White Band,
Radiopuhelimet,
Lalann,
Slave,
Donny Hathaway,
Supertramp,
Brothers Johnson,
The Beau Brummels,
Sex Pistols,
Icehouse,
Crispian St. Peters,
Brick,
Dorothy Ashby,
Sonny Sharrock,
B.T. Express,
Mary Jane Girls,
Lee Hazlewood,
John Cale,
Aswad,
Boredoms,
Barry Ungar,
PIL,
Graham Central Station,
Black Moon,
Bad Manners,
Marvin Gaye,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Technova,
Delta 5,
Alice Coltrane,
Make Up,
Kool Moe Dee,
Jeru the Damaja,
Tears for Fears,
Eli Mardock,
David McCallum,
Con Funk Shun,
The Gories,
U.S. Maple,
Fluxion,
Faraquet,
Grauzone,
Popol Vuh,
Alton Ellis,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Gladiators,
Davy DMX,
Todd Rundgren,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
the Fania All-Stars, the Fania All-Stars, the Fania All-Stars, the Fania All-Stars.
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.