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 Kenya and from Lyon.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Jakarta.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Henry Cow to the rock 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 Quando Quango. All the underground hits.
All Reagan Youth tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every LL Cool J record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Negative Approach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Unwound,
The Divine Comedy,
Deadbeat,
Ten City,
Donald Byrd,
Aaron Thompson,
Gang Starr,
Nirvana,
Guru Guru,
Harry Pussy,
Max Romeo,
The Martian,
Fela Kuti,
Nation of Ulysses,
Laurel Aitken,
One Last Wish,
World's Most,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Idris Muhammad,
Glambeats Corp.,
Rakim,
Quadrant,
Intrusion,
The Pop Group,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Soft Cell,
KRS-One,
Swans,
Leonard Cohen,
New Order,
Tom Boy,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Neil Young,
Black Flag,
Roy Ayers,
Jacob Miller,
DJ Style,
Charles Mingus,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Stetsasonic,
T.S.O.L.,
Pussy Galore,
Boredoms,
Los Fastidios,
The Gun Club,
the Slits,
Wolf Eyes,
David Axelrod,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Amazonics,
Khruangbin,
Marmalade,
R.M.O.,
Sandy B,
Supertramp,
The Sonics,
Cheater Slicks,
Pulsallama,
Trumans Water,
Hot Snakes,
The Gories,
Liliput, Liliput, Liliput, Liliput.
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.