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 Qatar and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1969 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Milan.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Salvador 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 synthesizer 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 The Sonics to the crunk kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Curtis Mayfield. All the underground hits.
All Sexual Harrassment tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Aural Exciters 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lebanon Hanover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Wake,
Swans,
Robert Wyatt,
Radio Birdman,
Pagans,
The Evens,
T. Rex,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Flesh Eaters,
Faust,
Tomorrow,
Leonard Cohen,
Nik Kershaw,
The Walker Brothers,
Fela Kuti,
Sly & The Family Stone,
The Fall,
The Moleskins,
The Fire Engines,
The Gories,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Duran Duran,
Ludus,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Harmonia,
Tres Demented,
Con Funk Shun,
The Count Five,
Bush Tetras,
Spoonie Gee,
Massinfluence,
48th St. Collective,
the Soft Cell,
The Doobie Brothers,
The Standells,
Pharoah Sanders,
Donny Hathaway,
Maleditus Sound,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Sandy B,
Alton Ellis,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Mummies,
Minutemen,
Derrick May,
Public Image Ltd.,
Frankie Knuckles,
Wolf Eyes,
Unrelated Segments,
Soft Machine,
Dennis Brown,
Joe Finger,
Rosa Yemen,
The Index,
Aswad,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Black Sheep,
Mantronix,
Traffic Nightmare,
Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich, Nick Fraelich.
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.