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 Haiti and from Beijing.
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 1966 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Winnipeg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 EPMD to the dance 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 James Chance & The Contortions. All the underground hits.
All Maurizio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Sound 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Todd Terry record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Flash Fearless,
Shuggie Otis,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The New Christs,
Sonny Sharrock,
Iggy Pop,
Fluxion,
Bob Dylan,
Bobby Byrd,
The Searchers,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Darondo,
Crooked Eye,
The Happenings,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Roger Hodgson,
Sexual Harrassment,
Sam Rivers,
Archie Shepp,
The Cowsills,
Max Romeo,
Saccharine Trust,
The Mummies,
Glambeats Corp.,
Radio Birdman,
Tropical Tobacco,
Joyce Sims,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
The Fall,
Make Up,
Letta Mbulu,
Sex Pistols,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Matthew Bourne,
Swell Maps,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Das Ding,
Anthony Braxton,
X-101,
The Offenders,
the Normal,
Ice-T,
The Blackbyrds,
Colin Newman,
Vainqueur,
Adolescents,
One Last Wish,
Wire,
Whodini,
La Düsseldorf,
Sun Ra,
The Five Americans,
Matthew Halsall,
Jeff Lynne,
John Lydon,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
ABBA,
Avey Tare, Avey Tare, Avey Tare, Avey Tare.
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.