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 Mexico and from Sao Paulo.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Copenhagen and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Franke to the techno kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Bobby Womack. All the underground hits.
All Hasil Adkins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Lydon 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 theremin and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Graham Central Station record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joy Division,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Man Parrish,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Nik Kershaw,
The Toasters,
Zero Boys,
Loose Ends,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Skriet,
Scrapy,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
ABC,
This Heat,
10cc,
Johnny Osbourne,
CMW,
Eli Mardock,
Gang Gang Dance,
Vladislav Delay,
The Leaves,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Todd Terry,
The Gap Band,
Gang of Four,
Camouflage,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
8 Eyed Spy,
Tommy Roe,
The Remains,
Subhumans,
The Five Americans,
The Shadows of Knight,
Yazoo,
The Star Department,
Jeff Lynne,
Tubeway Army,
James White and The Blacks,
FM Einheit,
Lightning Bolt,
the Human League,
In Retrospect,
Grey Daturas,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Brothers Johnson,
Mark Hollis,
Lebanon Hanover,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Chrome,
Kool Moe Dee,
Boz Scaggs,
John Holt,
Henry Cow,
Sun Ra,
Robert Wyatt,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Connie Case,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Metal Thangz,
Barclay James Harvest,
Donald Byrd,
Oneida, Oneida, Oneida, Oneida.
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.