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 Bremen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Todd Terry to the rock 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 The Blues Magoos. All the underground hits.
All Oppenheimer Analysis tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Average White Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Kinks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Brothers Johnson,
the Normal,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Bobby Sherman,
John Holt,
Index,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Joey Negro,
Eden Ahbez,
Godley & Creme,
Main Source,
Drexciya,
Jeff Mills,
Porter Ricks,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Five Americans,
Kerri Chandler,
Arcadia,
Cymande,
Jerry Gold Smith,
CMW,
The Searchers,
Gichy Dan,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Tres Demented,
Gastr Del Sol,
Hoover,
X-Ray Spex,
The Misunderstood,
Technova,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Eve St. Jones,
The Residents,
a-ha,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Bad Manners,
R.M.O.,
Flamin' Groovies,
Altered Images,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Neu!,
MDC,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
The Remains,
Q and Not U,
Average White Band,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Crime,
Reagan Youth,
Television,
Liliput,
Robert Görl,
Black Pus,
John Cale,
Glambeats Corp.,
Jeru the Damaja,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Fire Engines,
Monolake,
Goldenarms,
Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection, Rotary Connection.
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.