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 Djibouti and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 Manchester and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Sparks to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 LL Cool J. All the underground hits.
All U.S. Maple tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lindisfarne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lafayette Afro Rock Band 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?
Bang On A Can,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lucky Dragons,
Essential Logic,
Urselle,
Steve Hackett,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Marine Girls,
Gabor Szabo,
Second Layer,
Kurtis Blow,
The Searchers,
Sister Nancy,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Detroit Cobras,
Rekid,
Lou Christie,
B.T. Express,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Symarip,
The United States of America,
Hardrive,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Gories,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Severed Heads,
Magma,
The Moody Blues,
Hasil Adkins,
The Stooges,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Black Dice,
Gastr Del Sol,
JFA,
Ohio Players,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Masters at Work,
The Durutti Column,
In Retrospect,
Negative Approach,
The Grass Roots,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
The Kinks,
Stiv Bators,
Arthur Verocai,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Fad Gadget,
a-ha,
The Slits,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Glenn Branca,
Surgeon,
Depeche Mode,
Yusef Lateef,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Crooked Eye,
Iggy Pop,
Boogie Down Productions,
Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions, Dual Sessions.
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.