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 United Kingdom and from Beijing.
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 1968 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manchester 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 Holger Czukay 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 Mandrill to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam. All the underground hits.
All Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rakim record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Roger Hodgson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ash Ra Tempel,
Ultra Naté,
The Golliwogs,
The Star Department,
Y Pants,
the Association,
Hot Snakes,
Piero Umiliani,
Bush Tetras,
Inner City,
Metal Thangz,
The Names,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
AZ,
Echospace,
Motorama,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Con Funk Shun,
Bronski Beat,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Das Ding,
X-101,
The Slackers,
New Order,
Franke,
Colin Newman,
The Associates,
Gang of Four,
Pagans,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Derrick Morgan,
Lucky Dragons,
Unrelated Segments,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Leonard Cohen,
Bobby Byrd,
Dual Sessions,
the Germs,
Wolf Eyes,
Johnny Osbourne,
Procol Harum,
Section 25,
Adolescents,
Minutemen,
Yusef Lateef,
MDC,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Max Romeo,
Eric Dolphy,
New York Dolls,
Andrew Hill,
Slick Rick,
8 Eyed Spy,
Young Marble Giants,
Grauzone,
The Motions,
Faraquet,
Camberwell Now,
Skarface,
Average White Band,
the Human League,
Rod Modell,
Cabaret Voltaire, Cabaret Voltaire, Cabaret Voltaire, Cabaret Voltaire.
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.