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 Ecuador and from Portland.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
I was working on the mellotron sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 London Community Gospel Choir to the funk kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 The Blackbyrds. All the underground hits.
All Derrick Morgan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Michelle Simonal 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kerri Chandler record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scott Walker,
Juan Atkins,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Big Daddy Kane,
Faraquet,
Grauzone,
Jandek,
The Wake,
Jacques Brel,
Gabor Szabo,
Minny Pops,
E-Dancer,
Max Romeo,
The Slits,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Terry Callier,
The Trojans,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Sandy B,
Ornette Coleman,
Can,
Todd Terry,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Invisible,
Arthur Verocai,
Boredoms,
The Vogues,
Bad Manners,
Radiohead,
Bauhaus,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Joe Finger,
Moebius,
David Axelrod,
Lower 48,
The Blackbyrds,
Stetsasonic,
Unwound,
Wolf Eyes,
Man Eating Sloth,
Piero Umiliani,
David McCallum,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Leonard Cohen,
The Divine Comedy,
Moss Icon,
Wire,
Camron Feat. Jay Z And Juelz,
Sister Nancy,
Essential Logic,
Royal Trux,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Derrick May,
Scratch Acid,
Mars,
Gang of Four,
Alice Coltrane,
The Motions,
Frankie Knuckles,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sarah Menescal,
Lucky Dragons, Lucky Dragons, Lucky Dragons, Lucky Dragons.
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.