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 Sri Lanka and from Cairo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Woodstock and Sao Paulo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Tokyo 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 rhodes 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 Electric Light Orchestra to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Second Layer. All the underground hits.
All K-Klass tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Nick Fraelich 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 harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Laurel Aitken record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a synthesizer.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Colin Newman,
Minny Pops,
H. Thieme,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
KRS-One,
The Real Kids,
Scrapy,
Mr. Review,
The Cure,
Susan Cadogan,
The Standells,
Scion,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
the Association,
MC5,
The Velvet Underground,
Yazoo,
Ronnie Foster,
Masters at Work,
Radiopuhelimet,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Trumans Water,
Sonny Sharrock,
Fat Boys,
The Index,
Piero Umiliani,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Stockholm Monsters,
Smog,
Silicon Teens,
Joy Division,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Banda Bassotti,
FM Einheit,
Q and Not U,
Livin' Joy,
X-102,
Warren Ellis,
Niagra,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bobby Sherman,
Bobby Byrd,
The Raincoats,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Massinfluence,
Camouflage,
Patti Smith,
Rod Modell,
John Cale,
Aloha Tigers,
Lou Christie,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
cv313, cv313, cv313, cv313.
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.