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 Uganda 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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Lyon.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 harpsichord 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 Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra to the funk kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Lightning Bolt. All the underground hits.
All Freddie Wadling tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Severed Heads record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 spring reverb and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Cabaret Voltaire record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bobby Sherman,
Bill Wells,
Youth Brigade,
Deakin,
Ronan,
Flash Fearless,
Ultra Naté,
The Cramps,
H. Thieme,
Rakim,
The Shadows of Knight,
Piero Umiliani,
Sugar Minott,
Maurizio,
X-102,
MDC,
Harpers Bizarre,
Blossom Toes,
Dawn Penn,
Erykah Badu,
Altered Images,
Wings,
The Music Machine,
the Soft Cell,
The Electric Prunes,
Derrick May,
Eric Dolphy,
Boz Scaggs,
Fad Gadget,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
The Fire Engines,
Blake Baxter,
Throbbing Gristle,
Fela Kuti,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Fugs,
Monks,
Pulsallama,
Black Flag,
Quadrant,
Sun City Girls,
Marvin Gaye,
Sex Pistols,
The Black Dice,
Lebanon Hanover,
The Misunderstood,
Peter and Kerry,
Coldchain, Rosco P., Featuring Pusha T from Clipse & Boo-Bonic,
Sixth Finger,
Bauhaus,
Stiv Bators,
the Swans,
Gichy Dan,
Pussy Galore,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Khruangbin,
Mantronix,
Amon Düül II,
The Residents,
Marine Girls,
Aswad,
Simply Red,
Skaos, Skaos, Skaos, Skaos.
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.