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 the UAE and from Spokane.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the mellotron 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 The Men They Couldn't Hang to the electroclash 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 West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grauzone record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 808 and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Marmalade record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Faust,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Warsaw,
Average White Band,
The Birthday Party,
Althea and Donna,
Amazonics,
Tropical Tobacco,
Mary Jane Girls,
John Holt,
Motorama,
Lalann,
Intrusion,
ABBA,
The Saints,
These Immortal Souls,
World's Most,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Jeru the Damaja,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Pagans,
The Victims,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Moleskins,
Johnny Osbourne,
Television Personalities,
Zapp,
Con Funk Shun,
Sarah Menescal,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Moss Icon,
Liliput,
a-ha,
Depeche Mode,
Excepter,
Accadde A,
Soulsonic Force,
The Litter,
Laurel Aitken,
China Crisis,
Quantec,
The Residents,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Q65,
Camouflage,
Jeff Mills,
Soft Cell,
Banda Bassotti,
Peter & Gordon,
Matthew Halsall,
James White and The Blacks,
Cecil Taylor,
The Golliwogs,
Echospace,
Adolescents,
Glenn Branca,
Metal Thangz,
Ralphi Rosario,
The Selecter,
Janne Schatter,
K-Klass,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.