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 Swaziland and from Columbus.
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 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Camouflage to the jazz kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Pylon. All the underground hits.
All The Jesus and Mary Chain tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Joe Finger record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Robert Wyatt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
In Retrospect,
Animal Collective,
Ultravox,
Maurizio,
UT,
Los Fastidios,
Reagan Youth,
The J.B.'s,
Interpol,
Scientists,
New Order,
The Alarm Clocks,
Newcleus,
Moebius,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
X-101,
Kevin Saunderson,
Radiohead,
Arcadia,
the Swans,
Scott Walker,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Cecil Taylor,
The Trojans,
The Sound,
Fat Boys,
Gregory Isaacs,
The Slits,
Tropical Tobacco,
Derrick May,
Nils Olav,
Anakelly,
Slave,
E-Dancer,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Prince Buster,
Lower 48,
Hot Snakes,
Bronski Beat,
Mo-Dettes,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Gang Gang Dance,
Shuggie Otis,
T.S.O.L.,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Letta Mbulu,
Chris & Cosey,
Brand Nubian,
Bauhaus,
Jeff Lynne,
Basic Channel,
Brass Construction,
the Normal,
Ice-T,
Soul II Soul,
The Doobie Brothers,
Roy Ayers,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Johnny Osbourne,
Avey Tare,
Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy, Sister Nancy.
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.