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 Afghanistan and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade to the crunk 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 Maurizio. All the underground hits.
All Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pulsallama record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
Alice Coltrane,
Roger Hodgson,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
In Retrospect,
The Gladiators,
10cc,
Chris Corsano,
Godley & Creme,
Quando Quango,
Suicide,
Henry Cow,
Scott Walker,
Crash Course in Science,
Lungfish,
Con Funk Shun,
Joey Negro,
Wire,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Dave Gahan,
Flamin' Groovies,
Bobby Byrd,
Crime,
Skarface,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Arthur Verocai,
Cheater Slicks,
The Flesh Eaters,
Scratch Acid,
The Red Krayola,
Amon Düül II,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
the Swans,
Deadbeat,
Kauko Röyhkä ja Narttu,
Bush Tetras,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
the Normal,
Clear Light,
Jesper Dahlback,
Lucky Dragons,
Ronnie Foster,
Y Pants,
The Leaves,
Robert Hood,
Slick Rick,
Swans,
Shoche,
Mandrill,
Eric B and Rakim,
Cecil Taylor,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Doors,
The Vogues,
Funky Four + One,
Loose Ends,
Pylon,
Thee Headcoats,
The Beau Brummels,
Nico,
Junior Murvin,
Organ,
John Holt, John Holt, John Holt, John Holt.
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.