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 Micronesia and from Copenhagen.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Art Ensemble Of Chicago to the grime 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 Mighty Diamonds. All the underground hits.
All Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Derrick Morgan record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Nick Fraelich record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
DJ Style,
Gerry Rafferty,
Black Flag,
Camberwell Now,
Al Stewart,
Sex Pistols,
Kaleidoscope,
Scientists,
OOIOO,
Joe Smooth,
Second Layer,
Barclay James Harvest,
Jimmy McGriff,
H. Thieme,
Alton Ellis,
Black Bananas,
Barry Ungar,
T.S.O.L.,
Soul Sonic Force,
Liliput,
Toni Rubio,
Schoolly D,
The Buckinghams,
Masters at Work,
Organ,
Stereo Dub,
Rapeman,
Eric Copeland,
Minnie Riperton,
Grandmaster Flash,
Wire,
Byron Stingily,
Sound Behaviour,
Trumans Water,
The Grass Roots,
Archie Shepp,
Rod Modell,
Derrick Morgan,
The Angels of Light,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Barracudas,
Sarah Menescal,
Mission of Burma,
Barrington Levy,
The Stooges,
Todd Rundgren,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Kinks,
Smog,
Mad Mike,
Neil Young,
Reuben Wilson,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Vogues,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Darondo,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Index,
Soft Machine,
The Knickerbockers, The Knickerbockers, The Knickerbockers, The Knickerbockers.
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.