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 New Zealand and from Seoul.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Second Layer 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 The Victims. All the underground hits.
All June Days tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Porter Ricks record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a CMW record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Alice Coltrane,
Cybotron,
Albert Ayler,
Barrington Levy,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Eric Dolphy,
Gichy Dan,
The Vogues,
The Fall,
Iggy Pop,
Icehouse,
Wally Richardson,
Bad Manners,
The American Breed,
Average White Band,
Bobby Sherman,
The Moleskins,
Anthony Braxton,
The Divine Comedy,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
John Cale,
Bob Dylan,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Jesper Dahlback,
Bizarre Inc.,
Eddi Front,
Guru Guru,
Harmonia,
Siglo XX,
Gregory Isaacs,
James White and The Blacks,
Cluster,
Yellowson,
Soft Cell,
Eli Mardock,
Ossler,
Sun City Girls,
EPMD,
Stereo Dub,
Mark Hollis,
Scan 7,
Yaz,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Roger Hodgson,
Warren Ellis,
Ultra Naté,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Jacques Brel,
Tubeway Army,
Piero Umiliani,
LL Cool J,
U.S. Maple,
Kaleidoscope,
Avey Tare,
UT,
The Smiths,
Pantaleimon,
Dead Boys,
Fat Boys,
Kevin Saunderson,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
ABC, ABC, ABC, ABC.
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.