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 Guyana and from Hong Kong.
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 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Lille.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lagos 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 1968 at the first Can practice in a loft in Cologne.
I was working on the snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Shuggie Otis to the techno 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 Rod Modell. All the underground hits.
All Outsiders tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Organ record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DNA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Soul II Soul,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Byron Stingily,
Angry Samoans,
Bang On A Can,
Visage,
MC5,
Dual Sessions,
Underground Resistance,
Kurtis Blow,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
The Pretty Things,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Second Layer,
Scratch Acid,
Bobby Sherman,
Gang Gang Dance,
Nico,
Theoretical Girls,
the Association,
Pierre Henry,
Stockholm Monsters,
Model 500,
D'Angelo,
Janne Schatter,
The Toasters,
Chris Corsano,
OOIOO,
The Associates,
Jeff Lynne,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Joy Division,
Mark Hollis,
Youth Brigade,
Terry Callier,
Jacques Brel,
Audionom,
The Searchers,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Red Krayola,
LL Cool J,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Hoover,
the Bar-Kays,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Pole,
Gang of Four,
Harmonia,
Erasure,
AZ,
Slave,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Mad Mike,
Lower 48,
Chrome,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
cv313,
Nirvana,
Drexciya,
Intrusion,
the Swans,
Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach.
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.