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 Japan and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 Tokyo and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tehran 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 La Düsseldorf to the grime kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 John Lydon. All the underground hits.
All Minnie Riperton tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mandrill 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Janne Schatter record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Shadows of Knight,
Todd Rundgren,
Fatback Band,
The Searchers,
The Techniques,
Amon Düül,
the Bar-Kays,
Tropical Tobacco,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Unrelated Segments,
The Zeros,
Bronski Beat,
Groovy Waters,
Amon Düül II,
Suburban Knight,
Barclay James Harvest,
Soft Cell,
David Axelrod,
Radiohead,
The Doobie Brothers,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Slackers,
Crash Course in Science,
Spandau Ballet,
Hardrive,
The Blues Magoos,
JFA,
KRS-One,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Beau Brummels,
The Sound,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
48th St. Collective,
Von Mondo,
Joey Negro,
Bootsy Collins,
John Foxx,
The Offenders,
Cecil Taylor,
Chris Corsano,
Ponytail,
The Invisible,
Lower 48,
Janne Schatter,
The Red Krayola,
Quadrant,
The Martian,
Eurythmics,
Porter Ricks,
Alice Coltrane,
Lungfish,
Niagra,
Organ,
The Modern Lovers,
The United States of America,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
The Detroit Cobras,
Carl Craig,
Audionom,
Rakim,
Public Image Ltd.,
Man Parrish,
Country Teasers,
Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now.
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.