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 Libya and from Copenhagen.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1960 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Calgary and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Kaleidoscope to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Slits. All the underground hits.
All Leonard Cohen tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Accadde A record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Eric Copeland record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Index,
Theoretical Girls,
Monolake,
Terry Callier,
Harmonia,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Soulsonic Force,
Erasure,
Cluster,
Minnie Riperton,
Kas Product,
Marc Almond,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lalann,
Lungfish,
Jeff Lynne,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Aswad,
The Barracudas,
The Leaves,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Last Poets,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Tommy Roe,
The Saints,
Surgeon,
Crispian St. Peters,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Janne Schatter,
Silicon Teens,
Stockholm Monsters,
Alice Coltrane,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Birthday Party,
June Days,
Blossom Toes,
The Gories,
Sonic Youth,
the Slits,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Newcleus,
Nico,
Donald Byrd,
The Smoke,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Goldenarms,
Suburban Knight,
Outsiders,
Average White Band,
Black Sheep,
The Raincoats,
The United States of America,
Idris Muhammad,
Freddie Wadling,
Slave,
the Fania All-Stars,
Bobby Byrd,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.