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 Kyrgyzstan and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Columbus and Halifax.
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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Terry Callier to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Dual Sessions. All the underground hits.
All ABC tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Doobie Brothers 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thompson Twins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Crime,
Unrelated Segments,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Roy Ayers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Supertramp,
Ornette Coleman,
Young Marble Giants,
Fat Boys,
Mark Hollis,
The Kinks,
Simply Red,
Robert Hood,
Josef K,
Boredoms,
Fatback Band,
Crash Course in Science,
The Last Poets,
Ronan,
Lungfish,
Wire,
Tom Boy,
Deakin,
Cymande,
Ultra Naté,
The Cowsills,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
L. Decosne,
One Last Wish,
The Gun Club,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Moleskins,
Amon Düül,
Amazonics,
Barry Ungar,
The Happenings,
Bizarre Inc.,
Soft Machine,
Nils Olav,
the Swans,
Curtis Mayfield,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Pantytec,
Ten City,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Golliwogs,
Barrington Levy,
The Evens,
Colin Newman,
CMW,
The Remains,
B.T. Express,
The Count Five,
Cal Tjader,
Animal Collective,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Wings,
Max Romeo,
Wally Richardson,
Lindisfarne,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.