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 Macedonia and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 arpeggiator 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 Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog to the punk 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 Bang On A Can. All the underground hits.
All Pantytec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobbi Humphrey 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rufus Thomas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeru the Damaja,
Popol Vuh,
Funkadelic,
Visage,
Kevin Saunderson,
Ralphi Rosario,
Cheater Slicks,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Pylon,
Donald Byrd,
Girls At Our Best!,
Marine Girls,
Wolf Eyes,
The Angels of Light,
Morten Harket,
The Neon Judgement,
The Slits,
Donny Hathaway,
Panda Bear,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Josef K,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
X-101,
Leonard Cohen,
Scion,
Public Image Ltd.,
Sarah Menescal,
Quando Quango,
Ponytail,
Public Enemy,
Anakelly,
Sandy B,
Animal Collective,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Curtis Mayfield,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Chrome,
Accadde A,
Siglo XX,
Ituana,
Mad Mike,
Harmonia,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
L. Decosne,
The Gladiators,
Althea and Donna,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
K-Klass,
Kool Moe Dee,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Quadrant,
Mo-Dettes,
Maleditus Sound,
Hoover,
Shoche,
Nik Kershaw,
China Crisis,
The Motions, The Motions, The Motions, The Motions.
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.